


sign a contract, find a true love(contractual couple)

by LesleyJean97



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I dont like brazzo but I wrote him in it anyway, I suck at comforting tbh, M/M, alternative universe, an unpleasant ex, as a guest that's for sure, contractual couple, drunk Manu, hints of homophobia, lots of babbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:33:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23341015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesleyJean97/pseuds/LesleyJean97
Summary: ‘You are required to disguise as my boyfriend for one week, starting from this weekend. Are you okay with that?’Thomas nodded immediately. He was fascinated by all of this, never before had he been involved in such mischiefs and he was so exhilarated about the upcoming ventures that he could almost sense his blood high racing in the veins.
Relationships: Thomas Müller/Manuel Neuer
Comments: 46
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a story about how two strangers got to know each other(all thanks to Manuel's brainwave) and fell in love after living together for one week.(I know it's hasty)
> 
> I'm not a native speaker so there might be some ridiculous grammatical mistakes XD
> 
> Anyway enjoy reading!

‘So… when will we see him?’ Mrs. Neuer asked hopefully after her son blurted out ‘I already have a date’ at a normal Saturday dinner.

‘Eh, maybe next weekend?’ Manuel stammered. Oops, he mentally reminded himself that he just set himself up in another trap. God bless his unintelligent tongue and stop dragging himself into an even bigger disaster!

‘That’s great!’ Mrs. Neuer exclaimed cheerfully. ‘Your dad and I can’t wait to see him!’

Manuel was about to say something before he reflected on what he told himself a minute ago, and wisely decided to just keep his mouth shut. He munched on the raspberry pie absentmindedly when he suddenly caught a glance from his dad. He was grimacing at him, that smile said a lot.

They took it for real.

They took the white lie for real, like, too real.

And this time, he simply couldn’t talk them out of it with just another lie.

Manuel felt his cheeks growing scarlet. He dumped that half-eaten pie and rushed back to his room before mom and dad could stutter a word. He locked himself in the room, leaning against the door in desperation. Slowly he slipped down and down as he felt his thighs turning weak and a feeling of dizziness started swallowing him from inside in all of a sudden, until his bottom finally reached the wooden floor.

_I’m doomed._ Manuel Neuer finally admitted to himself, ready to face his pathetic demise after a normal-but-maybe-not-so-normal Saturday dinner.

Manuel was writing his 27th possible cause of death, which was ‘drowned in my parents’ saliva after they learned about the truth’, when his mom knocked on the door.

‘Manu dear, are you hungry?’

‘Truthfully, maybe a little bit.’ His voice sounded a bit of muffled, for he buried his head deeply under the covers, ‘But it’s alright, mom, I have a jar of Nutella in here.’

‘You are not sick, are you?’

‘No.’

‘Okay then. I guess everything’s fine.’

‘Mom, I’m fine, really, happy and healthy as I normally am.’ He added to set her mind as he was half-sure that he captured a little bit of uncertainty in her voice. And it worked well.

‘Alright. The leftovers are in the kitchen, you can bring yourself some if you are hungry.’

‘Got it. Love you, mom.’

He picked up from where he left about five minutes ago and began writing down his 28th possible cause of death, however, this time he hit a bottleneck and literally couldn’t conjure up a new one. Manuel put down his pen and sighed heavily, he turned over with his back ruffling against the quilt, staring at nothing.

He couldn’t come up with a solid reason as why he’d choose to lie to his parents in the first place, considering that they were not that kind of traditional parents with stubborn minds. They were quite enlightened, actually. He came out to them after graduating from high school, it would be an exploding news among any other family, admittedly. However, they didn’t seem to be astounded at all when they heard the news. In fact, they were way more composed than those fair ladies in old times who were known for their composition and calmness.

‘We suspected you to be homosexual maybe years ago and we discussed about this. We agreed that whether or not, it was up to you to make a decision on what to say to us and when to say. Now you say it out. That’s great, we are happy about it. But the most important thing is, we want you to know that being homosexual isn’t a shame. It won’t change the fact that you are still that Manuel Neuer, you are still our son. And neither will it change the fact that we love you, kid’ was what they said.

He saw no reason to be afraid of being honest with them.

_Maybe there’s a reason, it’s just I can’t figure it out yet._ Manuel heaved a heavy sigh. He was in his late twenties, people at his age, in most cases, settled down and got married, maybe even started preparing for the upcoming of their second child. Whereas he, on the other hand, still lived under the roof of his parents, and not to mention the fact that he lived on a weird job which could possibly scare off his dates and the fact that he literally did not have any date ever. People in community would gossip about it, they told lame jokes to his parents when they attended community activities. They were not quite pleased with it, but what could they say? What the folks joked about were pretty much the truth, at least most part of them, you can’t deny the truth, right?

Anyway, they barely came to community activities afterwards. His parents were deeply hurt by that. Although they never admitted it, Manuel was fully aware of that. He didn’t want them to be hurt. He wanted them to be happy.

So there was a reason after all.

Manuel tossed that ‘The Possible Cause of Death of Manuel Neuer’ text away and tore a blank page from his notebook, starting drafting a brief self-introduction for himself, or CV for that matter, if you tried to sound more official and elite.

_‘26 yrs, male, homosexual, single, currently living in Munich, working for an authorized facility, an excellent job, richly paid.’_ – That should be it.

And then he started pondering on how to illustrate his plan in an attractive, humorous but most importantly, normal manner. He didn’t want to be seen as a pervert or something even worse, like a serial killer.

_‘I write this to humbly ask, if anyone could possibly be interested in pretending to be my boyfriend, just for one week? Don’t take it wrong, this is not that kind of stupid games. I lied to my parents, saying that I would bring my date to family dinner. I don’t want them to be disappointed. So I wonder, if someone could disguise as my boyfriend and help me get this through? You can get yourself a small fortune, with €300 spending money.’_

_‘My name? doesn’t matter, I prefer to remain anonymous right now, just for precaution.’_ He wrote, _‘You can call me Bear if you like. Contact me if you are interested in this. My mail address is nutellasagtalles@hotmail.com.’_

It didn’t seem to be that brilliant, or attractive either, but it should work fine, cause money would solve most problems, right?

Manuel opened up the local BBS website, he typed the words in and checked them through and through before clicking the ‘post’ button.

_This should work._ Manuel thought to himself. Slowly he closed his eyes, feeling his mind finally settle in serenity.

The next morning Manuel was brutally awakened by the hustle and bustle coming from outside. He cursed in murmurs, rubbed sleepy eyes and glanced at the view outside the window. He could see a ray of dim sunlight finding its way through the silhouettes of the houses across the street. Manuel sighed in exhaustion, he was pretty sure that it wasn’t even 7 o’clock yet, and waking up in an early Sunday morning clearly wasn’t what he expected.

He closed his eyes again, working on being back to sleep. But it wasn’t successful. He was all distressed and distracted, plus the fact that he was already hungry.

Manuel knew perfectly well what it was that distracted him – that post. Eight hours had been past since he posted that request, he was eager to know if there was any answer to it.

Although on second thought, this whole thing was ridiculous. Maybe those who read it would have the same thoughts, they just laughed it through and then turned off this page, starting browsing those funnier, more interesting posts. For a long time Manuel just mulled over these thoughts.

_Just take a look at it,_ Manuel kept telling himself, he couldn’t resist the temptation of it. _What harm could it do to you? Just one look at it. Just one._

He reached for his phone, hands shaking. He checked his mailbox first – no reply, he opened up his post after that – 56 people had left comments, most of which were not that pleasant.

A bubble of hope was shattered into pieces.

Manuel tossed his phone away, heaved a heavy sigh. He was half-frustrated, half-relieved that now he finally had time to think about feeding himself. He got up reluctantly, stumbling to the kitchen with lights shut and quickly making himself a sandwich. Never before did he realize that a self-made sandwich could be that delicious. _Superb, actually._

He stuffed the sandwich in quick moves and slipped into the room before alerting his parents. He locked the door gently, panting for a while and turning around, only to find out that his room was eerily bright. Manuel was startled, stepped in a bit closer. The screen of his phone was illuminating. Manuel was a bit of fascinated, he jumped to bed, got a firm grasp on his phone as if in fear that it would slip away like a slippery eel. The notification reminded him that someone had just sent him a mail.

Manuel felt his heart stopped for a beat.

He unlocked the phone and opened up the mailbox immediately – yes, someone sent a mail to him approximately 1m ago, right when he was gobbling down that sandwich. He opened that mail, it said,

_‘Hi, my name is Thomas Müller, I live in Pähl, which is on the outskirt of Munich.(in case you don’t know:D) I saw your post on BBS. I’m willing to help you.’_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Das Radio ist da!

They arranged to meet in a café at 10 o’clock in the morning after two days since that mail arrived. Manuel woke up at 6 on that morning, which was so unlike him, given the fact that he wasn’t that kind of early riser. He used the extra time to prepare himself, tried his best to make himself as neat and tidy as possible. He combed his hair four times, changed his outfit from dark blue checked flannel to a bright tangerine jumper, but eventually decided that he might as well just go with the casual tracksuit. By the time he was ready to leave, he still pretty much looked like a fluffy Teddy Bear, which meant, there was probably no necessity for him to get up that early.

Manuel got there first. He checked his watch, it was only 9:30. There weren’t many people here, the attendants were doing clean-ups and weren’t fully prepare to serve yet. Manuel was one of their first batch of customers today, he sat in the corner quietly, preferring not being interrupted.

Manuel kept yawning for minutes, he was just about to fall asleep when someone intruding on his doze.

‘Hey, are you that guy posting a funny request on BBS? That Bear? Nutella maniac?’ A dim contour of a skinny frame caught his attention. Manuel withdrew from his light doze at once and quickly stood up, almost got himself stumbled.

‘You are thrilled, I get it. But you really don’t have to be that agitated.’ Thomas joked in a light tone. ‘Sit down, dude.’

Manuel did as he said. Thomas called the waiter for a menu, he skimmed through the pages quickly and ordered a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate cake.

‘What would you like to eat?’ He blurted out, handing the menu to him. That’s when Manuel realized that he skipped the breakfast this morning, all for the sake of picking up a charming outfit, which ended up getting nowhere. He wasn’t in the mood of treating himself with a great meal for compensation, especially when he was dizzy and nauseous at the moment. However a direct rejection doesn’t sound right.

‘Coffee would do.’ He finally decided before returning the menu to the waiter.

‘I haven’t learned about your name.’ Thomas spoke first the instant that attendant left. It seemed that he wasn’t quite used to silence and would exploit his every brain cell to prevent this. ‘I half-suspected that your real name might be something like Teddy, or Ted, cause, you know, Teddy Bear. Is it really Teddy?’ He babbled, with a spark of expectation sparkling in his eyes.

‘It’s Manuel, actually. Manuel Neuer.’

‘Okay Manu Bear,’ Manuel didn’t expect to be given a new nickname that quickly, especially it was given by a guy who only met you ten minutes before. ‘Why is the safety precaution? You are not working for the intelligence agency right? Though I do have suspicions on this…’

_Clearly this guy has too many suspicions, nonetheless, none of them makes any sense._ Manuel started doubting whether it was good idea of bringing Thomas home and introducing him as his boyfriend to mom and dad. He feared that he might say something strange to his parents the moment they met, like, ‘Your dog has very special barks, different from every other dog on this street. I fear he might be a spy from other country’ that sort of thing.

And then he could continue on his ‘The Possible Cause of Death of Manuel Neuer’ project.

He made a mental note of putting an additional clause of ‘DO NOT SAY ANYTHING STRANGE TO MY PARENTS’ in the contract and calmly replied, ‘I don’t want to be recognized. If someone who knows me find this, he might inform my parents of this. Then everything’s a mess.’

‘Makes sense. I haven’t thought of that.’ Thomas nodded. Strangely this time, he didn’t mind letting the silence linger a little bit longer. Manuel could almost see it hang around in the air, above their heads. Now it was his turn to feel unease in pure silence. So Manuel brought up a new topic.

‘What’s Nutella maniac?’

‘What?’ Thomas was confused, it hit him out of expectation.

‘You called me Nutella maniac. What’s that?’

‘Oh, you are talking about that.’ Thomas smirked, ‘Your mail address has made it pretty clear.’

‘What?’

‘Nutella sagt alles. Who else would use it as their username except for those Nutella maniacs?’

‘Yeah, I guess you are right about it.’ Manuel admitted.

The waiter served their meals for them – a chocolate cake and two cups of coffee.

‘I’m hungry.’ Thomas started bubbling over again, ‘I skipped the breakfast to catch the early train. In most cases I won’t get up until about 9:30.’

‘Well, neither do I.’ Manuel said absentmindedly, meanwhile sipping the cold coffee. He found it quite interesting, that he didn’t have to bring out a question actually cause Thomas would always give his answers even before he asked.

‘You can have some.’ Thomas blurted.

‘What?’

He got Manuel out of nowhere. The big fluffy guy appeared pretty much as confused as a three-year-old. So Thomas just pushed his plate to him.

‘Thanks, but um… I’m not very fond of chocolate cake.’

‘But you are a Nutella maniac! A great lover of chocolate sauce!’ Thomas was bewildered. ‘You are supposed to love chocolate cake as equally as you do with Nutella.’

‘Well, they are different nonetheless, you have to admit that.’

‘Alright.’ Thomas gave in, drew his plate back, gulping that chocolate cake as if in defeat, ’You are picky.’

Manuel almost choked. He considered rewarding himself with a whole new jar of Nutella as compensation for all the suffering that Mr. Never-Stop-Bubbling-Over fiercely bombarded him with during the meeting after everything’s done here.

Thomas let out a cheesy hum after finishing his meal. ‘Seems that skipping breakfast sometimes isn’t actually a bad choice.’ Thomas grinned, ‘That chocolate cake says so.’ He added when he noticed Manuel furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

‘I’m glad you enjoy it.’ Manuel said in a more or less sarcastic tone.

It seemed that Thomas wasn’t bothered at all, he clapped his hands cheerily and altered his posture to a more formal, upright manner. ‘Okay, let’s talk business, shall we? Where do we get start?’

‘Wait.’

Manuel fished a notebook out of his backpack and tore a new page from it. He wrote down the word ‘The Contract’ in capital, followed by the full names of them.

‘You are required to disguise as my boyfriend for one week, starting from this weekend. Are you okay with that?’

Thomas nodded immediately. He was fascinated by all of this, never before had he been involved in such mischiefs and he was so exhilarated about the upcoming ventures that he could almost sense his blood high racing in the veins.

‘What else?’

‘I’ll bring you home to meet my parents. I beg you do not say anything strange to them, please. Or I’ll be doomed.’ _Which I already am._ Meanwhile Manuel reminded himself reluctantly.

‘What do you refer to as ‘strange things’?’

He got him. Manuel couldn’t come up with a precise concept to illustrate this. Truth to be told, he figured that pretty much everything that came out of Thomas’ mouth was in fact, a strange thing. He decided to keep that to himself and said ‘Anything that’s unacceptable for people of their age’ instead.

‘Okay, get it. ‘your son had a jerk-off party here last night’ that kind of thing right?’

Manuel highly doubted if Thomas ever understood a single word of what he just said. On the other hand, however, knowing that do not talk about jerk-off party did count as a big progress. Clearly Thomas knew exactly where to draw his line, it’s just… his line was a bit of whimsical.

‘I guess you can put it this way.’ Manuel squeezed an embarrassing smile, ‘Anyway. The third rule is, do not leak out a single word about this contract, and also do not tell others about what we’ve discussed here today, just keep it under the hat, agreed?’

‘Confidentiality, huh?’ Thomas winked mischievously, ‘Great, it's getting more and more thrilling.’

‘And you can live in our house these days, for the sake of convenience, you know, to save all those time and money wasted on the round trip.’

‘Wow, you are so considerate.’

Manuel wasn’t sure how to respond to it. That praise just made his cheeks turning rosy and Manuel didn’t like this.

‘I wish for a movie night,’ Thomas kept babbling, completely oblivious to the delicacy of the situation, ‘Maybe we can watch some Marvel movies together. I was going to say _Love Actually_ but that doesn’t sound right, cause you know, we are not in fact a real couple. And I don’t like thrillers so I ruled them out. But I think animations would do…’

‘Okay, okay,’ Manuel cut in, ‘We can discuss it later. Let’s talk about the payment first. I’ll pay you €300 for this, but I’m open to discussion if you demand a higher earnings.’

‘I’m not short of money.’ Thomas waved his hand in a light-hearted manner. He grabbed the pen from Manuel’s grasp and promptly signed his name at the bottom of the contract in two strokes. ‘Done. Alright, Manu bear, let’s move to next stage, exchange some personal information. Is there anything else I need to know? Your favorite color? Football club? Or movie star?’

‘That doesn’t matter. The problem is, I actually know nothing about you, except your name maybe. Oh, and you live in Pähl.’

‘Right.’ Thomas patted the table as it all clicked, ‘Right, let me sort this out… wait…’ He cleared his throat in a serious way as if he were going to make an important announcement to the public, ‘My name is Thomas Müller, you already know that. I turned to 23 two months ago, in September actually. I have a brother, Simon, he’s three years old younger than me and a bit of annoying, truth to be told. My parents work on the family farm, we are breeding horses there… are you listening?’ He stopped abruptly, staring at Manuel, cocking his eyebrows.

‘What? I’m listening, yeah, you are talking about… horses.’

That wasn’t exactly the truth. Manuel was already on the brink of falling into a trance, he felt his head heavy as a shot and everything that’s in front of him was blurry, including Thomas, who was nothing but a babbling vague shadow with a very strong accent. He presumed it could make a perfect comic character.

It appeared that Thomas wasn’t fully convinced, nevertheless, he didn’t press on, ‘Alright, let’s carry on. I’m working for a radio station in Pähl, as a commentator. I can’t think of anything else. What’s your saying?’

‘Um, which football club are you rooting for?’ Prompted Manuel absent-mindedly.

‘Bayern. What else?’

‘Don’t ask me, I’m out of questions.’

‘Wait, I find one.’ Thomas blew a whistle in triumph, ‘We should make up a story about how we met and fell in love, don’t you think? They gotta ask! We have to prepare for this.’

‘You are right. But how? I suck at making up stories.’

Thomas racked his brain for a while. It didn’t take long for him to come up with one. ‘Easy peasy, just tell them the truth, with question marks though. We tell them we met in a café, fell in love at first sight and then started courting each other.’

‘Brilliant.’ 

‘Then I figure everything’s done here?’

‘Seems so.’ Manuel drew in a deep breath, glad to hear that everything’s finally settled. ‘I’ll pick you up at the railway station this Saturday morning at 10… or 11 o’clock? Whatever, your choice.’

‘Then 10 o’clock it is.’

They said goodbye and parted in different ways. Manuel folded that so-called contract in half before gently putting it in the backpack. _Miraculously that this plan actually worked,_ Manuel allowed himself a bitter smile, _besides, everything went pretty smooth by far._

When he arrived home, however, his light mood was all gone. Maybe that was because he was finally back to reality, when he saw the expectant look on his mom’s face. She was much elated about the ‘fact’ that her son was dating someone, and couldn’t stop chattering about the dishes which she was going to prepare in order to impress his boyfriend. He felt her jubilant smile was in fact, a silent accusation which he found it so hard to bear.

‘Mom, about my date, the thing is…’ Manuel murmured, ‘there’s something you should know.’

‘What is it, dear?’

‘I’m sorry about it, I –’ He was on the edge of confessing everything, but eventually he changed his mind, stepped back at last minute. He lowered his head to avoid any eye contact, taking a deep breath before opening his mouth, ‘Nothing. I may overact.’ He assumed a hearted smile to veil the guilty conscience, planted a quick kiss on her cheek before fleeing back to his room. He produced that half-folded contract out of his bag, cautiously unfolded it and took a firm but agonizing stare at those scribbles.

_What have I done?_ Manuel let out a deep breath, crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it to the corner.


	3. Chapter 3

Day 1

Manuel locked himself up in the room the following two days, completely doing nothing but pondering on the current dilemma which he set himself in. He could see that everyone involved in this, even including Thomas, was taking it seriously and ready to play their respective parts, yet he flinched, even though he was the protagonist of this play.

When the day arrived, however, Manuel drove to railway station to pick Thomas up nonetheless. He dressed up pretty nice, which dwarfed the old tracksuit worn on Manuel in drastic contrast. Manuel’s eyes were glued on him with no exaggeration.

‘Impressive.’

‘Thanks.’ Thomas grinned, ‘I think I better get gussied up to impress your parents. First time to meet, after all.’

‘You don’t have to take it that serious, we are not actually dating each other.’

‘Yeah, but you paid me 300 so I better knuckle down right?’ Thomas replied promptly as a matter of course, ‘Here, I bring you a gift.’

‘What?’

‘A picture of Thomas Müller, the infamous master of mischiefs – currently working on becoming one, though. Starting today.’ Thomas thrust it into Manuel’s hand. That picture caught the moment when Thomas was devouring a chocolate cake. Now Manuel got the meaning of his saying.

‘Oh, and there’s my signature on it.’ He added.

‘Um, that’s very… you.’ Manuel stammered.

Thomas chuckled, ‘And also a small gift for your parents.’

Manuel raised his alert, ‘It’s not something strange, is it?’

‘Depends. Nah, just kidding.’ Thomas changed his saying when he noticed Manuel’s nervousness. ‘Alright, let’s go. To be honest, I’m really looking forward to meeting them. They are nice guys, I suppose?’

Manuel shrugged, ‘Maybe too nice.’

He remained quiet the whole way back home, only let out some soft hums to answer those odd questions coming out of Thomas’ mouth when it was necessary. In most cases he just nodded or shook his head.

It took them approximately 40 minutes to get back home. Mrs. Neuer gave Thomas a warm hug and kissed him gently on the cheek the moment they stepped in.

‘I’m glad to see you.’ A warm welcoming smile spread across her wrinkled face. ‘Manu told us about you only days ago. It’s like a revelation to us and you can’t image how happy we are.’

‘It’s my honor.’ Thomas grimaced, ‘I bring you some home-made cookies.’ 

‘Oh, that’s so sweet of you.’ Mrs. Neuer happily took that delicately-wrapped box. ‘Come on in. I’m preparing for dinner. I could use your help, Manu dear, go wash your hands first and help me peel those potatoes.’

Truth to be told, cooking wasn’t among Manuel’s many accomplishments. So most things he did in kitchen were peeling potatoes and slicing bread, under Mrs. Neuer’s watchful eyes. Because he almost burned down the entire house the last time she left it under his command.

‘Mind your fingers.’ She muttered, ‘And hand the butter to me.’

‘Yes mama.’

She asked him some questions about Thomas, but Manu didn’t fully concentrate with all those thoughts disturbing him and all his answers were pretty much nothing but incoherent mumbles. He felt his mind in a total chaos right now. The outcome was better than he presumed to be, maybe far better, that he started to worry that this thing might come to an unexpected but also uncontrollable end.

Mrs. Neuer was however, oblivious to this. Clearly she was curious about her son’s date and her questions were like streams flowing endlessly out of her mouth.

‘You said he works on his family farm?’

‘Yes, he breeds horse.’

‘Oh, that’s quite interesting.’ Mrs. Neuer sincerely admired, ‘You know, your dad and I used to consider moving to the countryside when we were young, before you were born.’

They spent quite a lot effort to prepare the dinner, and the dishes all appeared to be great.

‘Fantastic.’ Thomas couldn’t repress a sigh of admiration.

‘Don’t flatter me.’ Mrs. Neuer chuckled.

They were having their meals in between harmonious chats and mild giggles. And it turned out that Mr. Neuer’s curiosity about Thomas was no less than that of his wife. Thomas could handle it perfectly every time there was a new question popped out.

‘You have a family farm? That’s brilliant! Marita and I have longed for a family farm since long ago. Are you working there?’

‘The farm? Oh no, that’s my parents’ business. I work for a local radio station, as a commentator.’

A confusing expression was immediately shown on Mrs. Neuer’s face, ‘But Manu told me you are a horse breeder.’

Thomas gaped almost open-mouthed at Manuel, who already froze in consternation with his hand hanging abruptly to a halt.

‘Um... yeh, commentate on breeding horse.’

‘It must be difficult during the busy season,’ asked Mrs. Neuer, ‘Will your sister help with the farm work?’

‘Sister?’ Thomas was confused, ‘I only have a brother.’

‘But Manu just told me–’ Thomas already gasped when he heard those five words. They sounded ominous. ‘–you only have a sister.’

Now Thomas wasn’t so amused at all, he felt himself on the brink of having a heart attack.

‘Eh, he’s a gender-fluid,’ Thomas stammered frantically, ‘He’s a her the day when Manuel met him so…’

Thomas squeezed an embarrassing smile, meanwhile giving Manuel a stern sideways stare. Manuel was painfully certain that he would soon be murdered by Mr. Never-Stop-Bubbling-Over and died of a miserable death. He then gobbled down a large pork knuckle and devoured approximately half of the onion soup, considering that this might be his ‘last dinner’ and he didn’t want to leave this world with any regret.

Mrs. Neuer didn’t press on, instead she gave him a smile radiating kindness and fondness, and changed the subject. ‘So how did you two get to know each other?’

Maybe it was the food, or calorie to be more precise, gave Manuel some strength that he suddenly decided to race to answer this question first, which was totally out of Thomas’ expectations.

‘During a football match!’ Manuel shouted.

‘In a café.’ Thomas’ voice sounded at around the exact same moment. The two boys paused for a second before exchanging a glance, both wearing an expression of dismay.

‘Yeh, during a football match.’ Thomas withdrew his previous remarks by repeating Manuel’s words.

‘Which team are you rooting for?’ Mr. Neuer seemed to be pretty interested.

‘Bayern.’ replied Thomas. But unfortunately, his remark was half obscured by Manuel’s loud voice. The big guy shrieked the word ‘Bayer’ once again at the same time.

If it wasn’t out of the fact that murder was illegal, Thomas would probably do it, right here, right now.

And whereas Manuel, trying to make an explanation as well as an atonement for the whole mess, forced out an awkward smile and wisely decided to say, ‘I got hit on the head on the way back home.’

Thomas boggled at this saying, but he regained his sense very quickly, followed by prompt reactions by echoing what Manuel just said.

‘Yeah, yeah, he bumped into a –’

‘–Lamppost.’

‘–Glass door.’

Again, they managed to find a way to make a bad thing even worse. Manuel and Thomas gaped at each other, dumbfounded.

‘Um, yeah, he got hit so hard that he cannot even correctly remember what hit him actually.’ Thomas squeezed out some incoherent words in between nervous giggles.

Mr. and Mrs. Neuer exchanged a knowing yet meaningful look before slowly uttering, ‘Geez, that was a huge bump…’

Manuel had to claim that he was totally fine over and over again under the pressure that Mrs. Neuer insisted on checking him or driving him to the hospital to do a CT-scan, in fear that her son might suffer from a serious amnesia. She even made him recite her sister’s phone number to ensure that he indeed was as fine as he proclaimed to be. After him finishing reciting all their family member’s phone numbers – including the number of a third cousin twice removed, she finally agreed to let him go. Manuel scurried to his room immediately, afraid that she might suddenly recall another distantly-related family member whom he never heard of before.

Thomas already awaited him there when he entered. He was prepared to face a storm of spat and bicker, so he lowered his head and bent a little when he stepped in, trying to make himself smaller.

‘Mr. Neuer.’

‘Yes?’

‘Could you please explain what just happened there?’

Manuel waved his hand, ‘Simple, I screwed it. That’s what happened there.’

‘That doesn’t sound very accountable to me.’

Manuel laughed a plastic smile, ‘You are way more positive than me when it comes to this.’

‘That’s because you are dealing with it in a negative way.’ retorted Thomas, ‘And I won’t allow you to do that. Now could you please tell me why it ended up like this, after all the rehearsals and preparations we did beforehand?’

He repressed his voice, being cautious not to let their argument reach the ears of the couple sitting outside. And so did Manuel.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ He sniffed out a soft sigh, ‘It already happened and it’s no use pursuing this.’

Thomas was more or less infuriated by his slovenly attitude. The reproach just poured out like a heavy rainfall without stop. ‘I told you the answers to all those questions and how come you couldn’t even get a single one correct?’ He whispered with a rapid speed, leaving Manuel no intervals to breathe or retort.

‘Okay, then just hear this out – You talked too fast and had a very strong accent, I couldn’t understand a single word of what you said, satisfied?’

‘So everything I said didn’t register in your brain at all, right?’

‘You get it right.’ Manuel admitted softly. He lied back on his bed, limbs stretching into a stick figure. He considered it as a sign of surrender, cause he really wasn’t in the mood of continuing this fight. Yet Thomas had different thoughts. He jumped onto the bed, sitting on Manuel in a horse-riding position. Manuel blushed instantly when he felt his waist rubbing against Thomas’ thighs. Unfortunately, yet meanwhile fortunately, Thomas didn’t have surplus thoughts on this, all his concentration was fastened on one thing, which was squabbling with Manuel.

‘What’s the point of this whole thing, if you don’t intend to do it properly from the start? And why bother spending all the efforts and strength just for nothing?’ said him outrageously in whispers.

Manuel went silent and still. For a while, the only voice heard in this room was Thomas’ heavy panting. 

Mrs. Neuer happened to enter the room at this very specific, delicate moment, when the two were tangled into an awkward and also delicate position. They froze the moment they saw her.

‘Just come to remind you,’ She kindly remarked with a knowing smile across her face, ‘The condoms and lube are in the drawer by the bedside, so be careful. And Manuel –’ she winked mischievously at him, ‘be gentle.’ And then she exited and carefully closed the door, leaving the place to them.

The two boys froze there for another minute as if they were hexed by some witch. They broke out of the spell a moment later and the first thing Thomas did was to quickly scramble down from Manuel.

‘I promise you I absolutely didn’t expect that.’ Manuel muttered at once, ‘My mom sometimes can be a bit of… surprisingly, weirdly hospitable. I’m sorry about that if it would make you feel uncomfortable.’

Thomas chuckled, his brows uplifted in an amusing way, ‘Why apologize? She didn’t do anything wrong. You however, do owe me an apology. You should apologize to me for turning a deaf ear to my words.’

Manuel licked his lower lips thoughtfully, contemplated on this for a while and finally made up his mind before softly saying, ‘You are right. I’m sorry, Thomas, for the whole mess.’

‘Apology accepted.’ Thomas mumbled. He then lied down on bed alongside Manuel, resting his head against the soft pillow, gazing up at the ceiling. The two of them looked like those tourists lying on the beach of Florida, bathed in sunlight, except that there wasn’t any sunlight but only a slight ray of lamplight, and neither were as happy and relaxed as those tourists.

‘Your parents, they are pretty nice.’ Thomas blurted out, breaking the eerie silence.

‘That’s what they are. Everyone who knows them feels the same.’ said Manuel. He decided to leave out the part about community activities.

‘So why would you choose to lie to them in the first place?’

This was the same question which Manuel had already asked himself before, and he already held an answer. Yet this time what came out was a totally different explanation.

‘Let’s just say I want to play a trick with them. I’m a naughty hoaxer, I don’t share truth with other people.’

‘That’s different from what you said in the post.’

Manuel surrendered, ‘Alright. You are not easy to fool, I get it. But as I said, I don’t share truth with other people. So you won’t hear it from me, end of the story.’

The room once again fell into silence, as each of them was thinking loudly inside their own minds in the meantime. Both were so deeply immersed in their own mental worlds that even the disturbingly annoying shrieks of the crows couldn’t bother them.

Time passed by rapidly yet silently. It was already pitch dark outside when Thomas finally emerged from his deep, vast mental pool. He stole a few glances at Manuel before turning to face him, venturing, ‘Do you think they’ll buy it?’

Manuel thought over for a moment and simply replied, ‘I dunno.’

Thomas frowned at him. Clearly this wasn’t what he wished for.

‘I think we should figure out better ways to convince them.’

‘Never mind. I fucked up.’

‘Oh, come on. We still have six days to fix this.’

Manuel was half amused by his relentless enthusiasm, he faked a smile and cast a sarcastic look at Thomas, muttered in a bitter tone, ‘You know, my dad used to be a sheriff, we probably are the worst con-artists he’s ever dealt with, if we had the courage to call ourselves ‘artist’. Anyway, I’m already tired.’ he slowly got up and stretched himself lazily, grumbled in between persistent yawns while he was heading to the door, ‘I gotta turn off the light. If you have anything to say, please, just leave it until tomorrow. I’m too exhausted for another round of discussion.’

‘I won’t give up!’ Thomas shouted at his back.

‘Be my guest.’ As his voice died down, all immersed into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, literally. XP


	4. Chapter 4

Day 2

Manuel wasn’t so fond of sharing a bed with another guy, especially whom he made the acquaintance of only days before. Because in that case, he had to be extremely careful not to touch the guy sleeping by his side, which was kinda difficult considering that the bed didn’t have enough capacity for two adults who were both over six feet, plus a fluffy Teddy Bear which was of the size of an adult lion. He kept the position of lying on his left side for a total of nine hours without moving, which gave him a sore backache as a result.

‘Morning, love.’ Thomas jokingly called out when he heard the rustling and grumbling sound from aside. He already got up, now sitting up on the bed against the wall, flipping through the pages of an old sports magazine. That flipping sound, even though as mild as it could be, sounded like the cracking of thunder. Manuel moaned miserably and pulled the covers up a little bit to cover his ears.

‘Stop calling me that.’ groaned Manuel in a muffled voice, whose watery eyes were filled with tears due to unrelenting yawns.

‘You remember what I said last night? About working out better ways to convince your parents?’

‘Yes…?’

‘I figure that the biggest problem is that we are not actually into it. We are in a play where we fail to play our roles by heart, you get it?’

‘So you are suggesting…’ An ominous feeling started swirling inside Manuel’s head.

‘We should act like a real couple, starting from calling each other with those sweet yet disgusting sappy names, like, I call you ‘love’ or ‘sweetheart’ whatever, and you can call me anything you like as long as it’s nauseating in that way.’

Manuel didn’t hesitate to give his answer, ‘I really don’t like this idea.’

‘But it’ll work fine!’ protested Thomas, ‘Research shows that giving people names is one of the most effective ways to tie up a long-standing emotional bond with them. I googled it last night when you were snoring.’

‘Okay, Thomas, cut it out there please.’ Manuel stopped him, ‘I need you to answer a question first. Would you mind telling me why you are so enthusiastic about this whole thing?’

‘You paid me 300,’ replied Thomas promptly, ‘you hired me so I had to do it right. Otherwise I would have been beaten by my own conscience.’

Manuel heaved a heavy sigh, ‘But the truth is, I’m seriously considering paying you another 300 in exchange for a not so stubbornly frenzied attitude on this, what do you think? Just shake it if you agree.’ Manuel held out his hand as his face was wreathed with expectations.

Thomas knocked it out, glaring at him crossly, ‘What if I say ‘no’?’

‘Then I guess I have to lump it.’ Manuel rubbed his weary eyes in exhaustion, ‘Fine, do as you please. I’d like to have a moment of peace, if you’d be so kind.’ hissed Manuel with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Then he pulled the quilt higher to fully cover his head, escaping to his own cozy, comfortable little universe.

They spent almost the entire morning confining themselves within the four walls. They didn’t spoke much, as Manuel was browsing the websites attentively all the time while Thomas was devouring the funny texts on those magazines silently.

‘Boys?’ Mrs. Neuer came knocking on the door, ‘Time for lunch.’

They exchanged a somewhat guarded glance before reluctantly trailing to the dining room together in sluggish moves. Mrs. Neuer welcomed them with a big smile, she rubbed her hands vigorously as a spark of excitement shining in her eyes. ‘How’s your night?’

‘Fantastic.’ Thomas grinned, giving Manuel a warning look at the same time to tell him better keep his mouth shut when he was about to stutter a reply. So what Manuel did instead was obediently nodding by his side to accompany the melody which was scored with deception and deceit.

And at that moment, he realized that maybe it was because being an accompanist, a sidekick in a hoax would make him less guilty that he chose to step back behind the curtain. Maybe that was why he always flinched and being so resistant to accepting the leading role in this play all the time.

_I didn’t hire a partner-in-crime, I hired a guy to undertake the burden which I was afraid to bear._

He was oddly silent as well as lifeless during the meal, eating his share of pizza in mechanical movements, looking like the hands of an old, rusty clock. He wasn’t fully into the heated chats of the other three, but diving into his own pool of thoughts. The furrows carved on his forehead were as heavy as a ravine and as deep as a trench, shadowing his face with a shade of gloom.

Mrs. Neuer was the first to notice Manuel’s weirdly disturbing state. ‘Manuel? Is there anything wrong?’

He failed to respond, for he was so deeply occupied in a mental level. Thomas gave him a hard jab on the thigh, which caused him startled and almost got him sprung up from his seat.

‘What the –’

Manuel silenced himself immediately when he noticed that both his parents were gazing at him with a mixture of worry and confusion. He licked his lower lip anxiously, waiting for someone uttering first.

‘Manuel, is everything alright?’ asked Mrs. Neuer tentatively.

‘Yeah, everything’s right. Why would you doubt that?’

‘You seem to be pretty exhausted.’

‘And not yourself. You were acting strange lately.’ Mr. Neuer added, ‘Is it because of that bump? Are you still dizzy? Or having hallucinations?’

‘What? No ––– dad, what are you thinking?’ protested Manuel, ‘I’m not having hallucinations. A little tired maybe, but that’s because I… eh …’ He was searching for proper words to make up a reasonable answer, ‘that’s because we were having fun last night. We stayed up late, to do some… you know, have fun.’ stuttered Manuel.

‘What?’ Thomas mumbled. He did a double-take before chiming in, ‘Yeah, we had a wonderful time last night. We –’ He stuck, but luckily, Manuel came in.

‘We nearly broke the bed.’

Okay, maybe not so lucky at all.

‘I told you to be careful.’ Mrs. Neuer couldn’t suppress a giggle from the heart, which this time however, implied a faintly mocking manner. Mr. Neuer exchanged a knowing glance with her stealthily. A slight bit of subtly mischievous smile curved along his thin lips as he shook his head lightly. Manuel figured that probably wasn’t a good sign. He lowered his head immediately to avoid his shrewdly intense gaze, and gobbled his food in a guilty haste in fear that one more second and he might accidentally give away anything.

And it seemed that Thomas had the same thought. They reached an unspoken agreement that the safest place was Manuel’s bedroom and the sooner they get there, the better. Five minutes later, they put down their forks in unison, ready to dash back to their safe house. Manuel was about to get up when he suddenly felt that someone seized him by the collar and then dragged him back for a quick kiss, which hit him totally unexpected.

Now he knew what it felt like when being electrocuted – the heart stopped beating and every strand of the hair bristled in shock.

Their sights locked together. Honestly speaking, this was in fact, the first time that Manuel had had the opportunity to earnestly gaze into the colors of Thomas’ eyes. He was indeed in awe of its profusion.

On the other hand however, this went too far. It was way out of line. This kind of thoughtless, immature behaviors was going to drive him up the wall and he could bear them no more. Manuel got himself separated from Thomas, faked a plastic smile to his parents and stomped into his room with a face like thunder.

 _Okay, this has to stop, there’s no room for manoeuvres._ Manuel had made up his mind.

‘What’s that for?’ asked Thomas, who followed Manuel back and closed the door behind himself in a huge banging sound. They started bickering fiercely the instant they were safely behind the closed doors.

‘Then you tell me what’s that kiss for?’ hissed Manuel.

‘I try to convince them! You know that.’

‘Why don’t you remind me first?’ pumped Manuel outrageously, ‘You are supposed to tell me beforehand.’

‘How? I improvised it. It just hit me at that very opportune moment so I just did it. And what’s that breaking-bed-stuff all about?’ Thomas fought back.

‘That’s my improvision.’

‘And you haven’t discussed with me before either.’

‘That’s because this idea was only spawned after they brought up that subject. I’m not a telepath, I can’t mentally discuss with you.’

Thomas rolled his eyes, ‘Alright. The funny thing is, although our thoughts on this whole thing may hugely differ from each other, we always managed to reach the same end by screwing things up. I can’t find out anything more ironic than this.’

Manuel sighed, ‘I agree.’

The afternoon was quite peaceful, without any heated discussion or fierce squabble. The clock ticked in peace and the time flew in pleasant riffling sound and rhythmic tunes composed of the crisp clicking tones of keyboard.

Every so often Manuel would seize chances to squint at Thomas on the sly, stealing a few furtive glances. He was utterly fascinated by his eyes – one hazel, one turquoise. Those beautiful bright colors mixed together in a harmonious way, which reminded him of the costal scenery where the hues of blue, green and brown all painted together, looking soothing and relaxing. He couldn’t stop imaging what they would look like if it were gilded by golden light, right when a gleam of bright sunlight cast on Thomas’ hair. Manuel believed it would be quite enjoyable.

 _Yet still, that couldn’t make up for what he had done, little bastard._ Manuel pouted in displeasure.

‘What are you looking at?’ asked Thomas, cocking his brow.

Manuel was startled, he promptly yanked himself from the bewitching imaginations and opened his mouth hurriedly, ‘I’m looking at, um… the wall.’

‘The wall?’

‘There’s a mosquito on it.’

‘Mosquito.’ Thomas repeated his word indifferently, not even batting an eyelid. Manuel knew he blew it, again.

 _Why do I always have to do such stupid things?_ He screamed hopelessly inside his head.

‘If you want to further discuss the problems we are faced with right now,’ said Thomas, with his head up and his lips pouting with an air of superiority, ‘I’m here, ready for any clever ideas you are about to bring forward.’

_That annoying little bastard._

‘I thought you were supposed to be the breeder-of-clever-ideas.’ retorted Manuel.

‘Am not. And just to remind you, you are the brain of this plan. You plotted this whole thing, you hired me as your sidekick. Whether you like it or not, you are in the center of this con. I’m okay with that if you want to call it quits. Frankly speaking, I’m already tired of serving a big baby.’

Honestly, Manuel would be quite relieved to hear this earlier this day and might just said yes without hesitation. However, he wasn’t so determined at the present time.

‘I won’t give up the attempts.’ mumbled Manuel hesitantly, ‘for now.’ He added after thinking twice. Thomas narrowed his eyes, gave Manuel a thorough survey as if he was weighing on whether or not his words were trustworthy. It seemed that Manuel successfully passed the test.

‘Well then, I’ll work as your sidekick as ever.’ Thomas heaved a sigh, ‘and fulfil our commitment, agreed?’

‘Agreed.’

For once, Manuel slept without his giant fluffy Teddy Bear by his side that night. He placed Teddy on his chair and cleared out other stuff on his bed to spare some room for the two of them, so it would be comfy and more spacious and not that agonizing cause you were confined to one position, unable to move.

He was lying on his side, with his back turning to Thomas, staring at the wall shadowed by darkness. He couldn’t tell the exact time, but he presumed that it was very late cause the room was getting darker and darker as the neighbors went to bed and the lights went off one after another, leaving fewer and fewer threads of shimmers lighting the room, until one last gleam of light also went out, eventually giving in to the darkness.

Now he had the time, and a serene atmosphere as well, to reflect on what happened today, to sort out his twisting thoughts. Those glittering eyes – one hazel, one turquoise, always came back whenever he closed his eyes.

 _A nasty little blighter, annoying indeed, yet with beautiful eyes, and cute characters maybe._ Manuel laughed to himself. He gently patted his forehead, snorting at his contradicted thoughts in amusement.

For the first time, he felt a sense of guilty for dragging Thomas into this. Yes, Thomas joined in voluntarily, nonetheless, it was him, the guy who schemed this plan, who should be to blame for messing up everything.

A thought was brewing in his mind. He stared at the nothingness thoughtfully for a while, deliberating for the various ideas that quickly flashed through his head and then turned around. To his utter surprise, Thomas did the same thing simultaneously. They were gazing at each other, unguarded.

‘I have a word for you.’ They opened their mouth in unison. Both were left shocked after finishing their lines.

‘You go first.’ muttered Thomas first in awkward silence.

Manuel licked his lips carefully and stuttered, ‘I just want to say… I’m sorry for hissing at you today.’ He clumsily rubbed his face with his big palm, ‘I lost it. And I apologize for that.’

Thomas paused a moment before a soft, gentle whisper slipped out of his lips, ‘I’m about to say the same thing. That kiss is… too reckless. I’m sorry about that.’

 _His eyes were truly sparkling,_ thought Manuel, fully amazed, _they were even more gleaming in such dim, vague surroundings._

‘Then we call it even?’

‘I suppose so.’

They grinned spontaneously, both let down their defenses and came out of their shells for the first time. _That actually felt nice,_ murmured Manuel mentally to himself.

‘There’s another thing I want to let you know,’ said Manuel calmly, ‘you can quit if you like. I know there’s a contract, but if you are tired of this, you can back out at anytime.’

Thomas blinked at him reflectively, ‘You know how I thought about this, I won’t just leave it.’

‘Not leaving it, or not leaving me?’ teased Manuel tentatively.

‘Okay, now you are flirting with me.’ Thomas rolled his eyes. Manuel chuckled, a sincere smile blooming vigorously on his face this time. Thomas lightly shook his head as an unnoticeable rosy flush suffused his cheeks. ‘Why don’t you bring this when we are out there with them?’

‘I’m too nervous to be mentally functional. In that case my brain just shut down automatically.’

Thomas let out a heavy sigh, ‘Alright. Looks like we have to find out another way.’ He tapped his temple wearily, ‘Current rules – no kissing, no sappy names, no flirting cause it’ll crash your brain and no hugging maybe.’ He took in a deep breath, furrowing his eyebrows, looking extremely troubled, ‘Is there any way left that can tell them we are in love?’

‘Hang a banner, with ‘we are in love, no kidding’ written on it. How’s that?’ said Manuel, with a childish smile playing on his face, eyes glittering mischievously, ‘I can paint the decorations.’

Thomas gently slapped him on the shoulder, ‘I’m serious.’

‘Wait, I have an idea,’ exclaimed Manuel in a low voice, ‘Let someone else tell them, someone trustworthy. I know a bloke living in the neighborhood. He lives at the other end of the street. This guy is a notorious gossip. If he saw me dating someone he’d definitely tell my parents. So my plan is, we use this guy. Tomorrow we go there, lying in ambush, wait for him to show up. Once he comes out, we start snogging.’ Manuel clapped his hand excitedly, ‘And everything’s done.’

Thomas was stunned, totally speechless. It took him a while before slowly regaining his composure.

‘It’s cleverly stupid.’ He concluded briefly.

‘It’s brilliant.’ retorted Manuel.

‘No, you don’t get it. I mean, there are so many loopholes in it. I can already foresee us screwing up once again.’

‘But at least give it a try. I have the feeling that this will work fine.’ Manuel patted his chest confidently, ‘Well, are you in or not?’

Thomas heaved a sigh, caving in eventually, ‘Fine, I’m in.’


	5. Chapter 5

Day 3

It turned out, there were indeed a handful of factors that would possibly hinder Manuel’s plan from successfully proceeding, accidentally oversleeping being one of them.

That gossip neighbor, whose real name was Hasan Salihamidzic, had a tight daily schedule which was rigidly conducted. He would walk his dog along the pavement every morning, from 10 o’clock precisely to 11 o’clock on the dot. He would leave his house at dusk and go for a run for an hour and half, this time however, without his four-legged little fella. So basically, there were actually only two and a half hour for them to execute their plan, if they did not consider slipping into Salihamidzic’s garden and fervently snogging each other under his roof.

Therefore, Manuel was extremely astounded when he found out that it was already 9:30 by the time he woke up. He dragged Thomas out of bed hurriedly and rushed to the location after roughly getting himself cleaned up. There were still two minutes left when they got there, after a long, exhausting run.

They stood two steps away from the lawn of Salihamidzic’s house, stretching their necks to check what’s happening inside the house, meanwhile panting for breath. Manuel would check his watch every ten seconds. 

‘Snog? I can’t even breathe.’ Thomas shook his head in disagreement, puffed heavily, ‘I told you there would be a hell lot of loopholes, but I never expect your alarm clock being one of them.’

‘That’s an accident. It rarely happens.’ argued Manuel in his own defense, ‘It’s not a loophole, just our rotten luck.’

Thomas was about to retort when Manuel silenced him with a gesture. They saw Salihamidzic coming out with a tiny bull dog striding along the pebbled track, proudly puffing its chest.

‘Okay… get ready…’ whispered Manuel, holding Thomas by the shoulders, with his eyes fully fixing on his gossip neighbor, concentrating on his every movement. ‘He’s coming this way.’ He murmured, pulling Thomas a little closer to himself.

And then, everything took a turn, figuratively and literally.

‘He’s heading for the opposite direction!’ Manuel exclaimed, staring at the gradually-receding silhouette in desperation, ‘Why would he do that? He should come this way! He always comes towards this direction.’

Thomas rolled his eyes, with an expression of I-already-told-you-before.

‘I can’t believe it. He always comes this way. He’s an anticlockwise type guy.’

‘Or maybe his bull dog happens to be a clockwise type, and he chances to humor him today.’

‘I just can’t believe it.’ Manuel shook his head gloomily, ‘First the alarm clock, and now they are off the beaten track. I can’t believe my bad luck.’

‘The good news is, we still have another chance.’ Thomas patted his back cheerfully, ‘We can still conduct our plan though, so long as we stay here until he comes back.’

Sitting around doing nothing wasn’t the best way to while away the hours. Soon they got tired, not even had the strength to keep themselves standing upright. So they just sat down on the cold pavement, tapping the rough, rock surface of the road to kill the time, looking pathetic.

‘I admit it, we suck at hoaxing.’ blurted Thomas after he counted up to his eighteenth yawn.

‘Yeah, no promising future as a con-artist.’

‘I still don’t get it,’ mumbled Thomas, gazing at Manuel with a puzzled look, ‘Why would you lie to them about this? If you just tell them the truth from the very beginning, we won’t end up looking like this, sitting alongside the road like a runaway, waiting for some gossip neighbor watching us perform in the cold chill wind.’

‘I don’t want to upset them.’ Manuel squeezed out a reply from his trembling lips. ‘I know this will make them happy. So I just did it.’

‘But what are you gonna do about it after this ends? You know this is only temporary.’

‘I haven’t thought about that.’ Manuel sighed, ‘Listen, I know this is a stupid idea and there are indeed several times when I was about to come clean to them, but I always retreated at the last minute.’

Thomas bit his lips thoughtfully, stared at the hard pebbled road with deeply knitted brows and then slowly but firmly opened his mouth with conviction vigorously overflown in his voice, ‘I can help you, if you want to confess.’ His fingers made invisible strokes on the road as if plotting a marvelous plan. ‘I can work as your spokesman, if there’s anything that you find it hard to speak out–’

Manuel listened patiently, chewing on his thumb, with his puppy eyes widely open.

‘–And your lawyer also, if you were ever arrested for defrauding your own parents. I can bail you out, and offer you a place to hide for the rest of your life –’

_Brilliant. Another ten seconds wasted, listening to the fella talking nonsense. What in the world am I thinking?_

‘–hiding in our farm, living a relaxing, countryside life ever after–’

‘Okay, stop there.’ Manuel cut in, ‘That goes too far. I need a more realistic solution.’

‘Simple, go find them and say you are sorry.’

‘But how? Now I can’t even look at them. If it’s that simple, we won’t be lounging around here.’ muttered Manuel, ‘And truth to be told, I don’t regret posting that thread. It’s kinda nice knowing–’

He came to a sudden halt as a familiar figure caught his attention. His notorious gossip neighbor, Mr. Salihamidzic, was coming this way, with his ill-tempered bull dog following behind.

‘He’s coming!’ exclaimed Manuel in low voice, ‘Get up, quick! And–––ready–––’

A string of frantic, shrill barks drowned his following words. The bull dog was startled by these two boys who were acting weirdly and started tearing off down the pavement, bolting furiously to the house as if it was running for its life. The boys were also astounded and immediately parted from each other, looking at Salihamidzic frantically chasing behind, screaming its name desperately while gasping for air, totally oblivious to the people standing aside.

Manuel and Thomas watched Salihamidzic hobbling through the porch, stomping angrily back to his house while cursing fiercely in between puffs and blows. He slammed the door shut, not sparing a glance for the boys standing less than two steps away from him.

‘I can’t believe our bad luck.’ groaned Manuel with a vacant look on his face, ‘That little bull dog ruins everything.’

Thomas gave vent to a heavy sigh, ‘Never ever want to keep a bull dog again.’ He paused, vacantly staring at that tightly-closed door, ‘But, if you look at the bright side, we still have opportunities, and this time, without that annoying little beast. So, chin up, Manu Bear.’

They roamed aimlessly along the street after having a quick meal in a fast food restaurant two blocks away from here, unable to head back home for little nap cause Manuel forgot bringing his key when he hurriedly dashing out of the house in a flurry and Mr. and Mrs. Neuer happened to be outside. So technically, there was no fair way for them to get in. Manuel suggested them getting into the house through the window, which Thomas were strongly against. He didn’t give a reason, but that gloomy, bitter expression said a lot, therefore Manuel compromised and decided not to pump him for an answer.

‘Now we do look like a real couple. Unfortunately your parents aren’t there.’ Thomas mumbled after he heard a pack of people maliciously gossiping about them when they walked by.

‘That’s hilarious. We spend every ounce of our brain cells trying to convince others, but it turns out, we can convince them by doing absolutely nothing.’

‘Yeah, just act as ourselves and they will see us as a real couple.’ said Thomas jokingly, not realizing that his words caused a dull blush creeping onto Manuel’s face, ‘Speaking of this, I say we already find out a best way to carry out our plan. No kissing or flirting or sappy names needed, just us, Manuel and Thomas, in their normal state though.’

Manuel chuckled, ‘Okay, what’s your normal state like? I doubt if you do have it’

‘That’s unfair.’ Thomas pulled a face and stuck out his tongue at him, ‘I thought you should know it. I act pretty normal every time I’m with you, us alone.’ He added.

‘Sitting on top of a guy whom you only know for 24 hours, and you call that normal?’ Manuel joked, repressing a giggle.

‘That’s an exception. You were so annoying right then, I lost my patience so…’ Thomas cleared his throat in a childishly proud manner, ‘Apart from that, everything’s on the right track. Me doing typical Thomas Müller stuff, no matter when and where, whether it’s out here, in your room or in that café–’

A thought flicked through Manuel’s mind. He gazed at Thomas, wrinkled his eyebrows. It appeared that something unpleasant was haunting him. ‘Speaking of that,’ he stammered with difficulty, fingers fiddling with the shirt-tail, ‘that day when we met in café, the truth is, I wasn’t feeling well that morning, not in my best shape… so yeah. I wasn’t paying full attention to what you said actually, but I didn’t mean to do it. No, I did it, but not intentionally… never mind, I don’t know what I’m babbling about.’

‘Okay… ’ Thomas slowly opened his mouth, peering at Manuel carefully with his eyes narrowed, ‘I get your meaning. But why bother telling me about it?’

‘I don’t want you to be upset about what happened that day.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Well, I’m glad to hear that.’ muttered Manuel, licking his lips in thoughtful silence.

They wandered blissfully for another hour and halted outside Salihamidzic’s house at around four o’clock, waiting in patience. They heard the vague, scuffling noise approaching. The next minute, they were already in position when Salihamidzic appeared on the porch, fully dressed up for a jog. The plan was immediately set in motion, the boys leaning closer to each other and snogging in a dramatic way when Salihamidzic was trotting through the lawn.

‘Wait, why is him not looking at us?’ Manuel whispered anxiously by Thomas’ ear, as Salihamidzic passed by with a totally indifferent look on his face.

‘Cause he didn’t recognize you!’ Thomas pointed out, ‘You should face the direction from where he comes, not turning your back at him.’

Manuel sighed, ‘Okay, one last chance. If I failed it this time, I might as well just go with the banner-plan.’

Thomas snorted in displeasure, ‘I’ll consider that a blot on the reputation of my career as a master of mischiefs, and no thanks to you.’

‘You can’t blot a thing that doesn’t even exist.’ retorted Manuel. An unnoticeable smile curved his lips.

‘I’m a promising prankster, until I meet you.’

‘Sorry you are stuck with a client like me.’ Manuel giggled joyfully. He kinda enjoyed bickering with Thomas. Although he denied it strenuously at first, he started to realize that deep down there they did share many things in common.

_Brewing a handful of cleverly stupid ideas in the head and bungling everything, for instance. But sitting on top of a stranger? Definitely not one of them._

The sun was slowly verging on the horizon, giving way to shades of dusk. Manuel saw a dim figure come nearer and nearer, slowing to a leisurely trot against the dazzling sunlight. He captured the same shaft of glaring sunlight reflecting off Thomas’ bright eyes, a radiant glow casting a golden shadow on the pools blazed with colors.

‘Are you ready?’ Thomas whispered, sliding a quick, sideways glance at that blurry silhouette slowly moving forward from behind.

Manuel leaned forward spontaneously for a fervent kiss, mutely giving him the answer. The colors exploded inside his mind as he closed his eyes to fully immerse himself into this kiss. He felt their lips rubbing against each other, accompanied by a blissful melody composed of vigorous heartbeats.

As for that plan and Mr. Salihamidzic, they were totally swept off from his head.

‘Did he really know it was you?’ asked Thomas with a dubious look on their way back home.

‘I guess so.’ muttered Manuel, trying to suppress the excitement in his voice.

The night fell and the moon emerged from behind heavy layers of clouds by the time they got home. Mr. and Mrs. Neuer already got back. Mrs. Neuer opened the door for them, a smile radiating warmth and expectation spreading across her kind face.

‘Where have you been, boys?’

‘Just hang out, nothing else.’ Manuel decided not to divulge too much.

Mrs. Neuer nodded, ‘Oh, Mr. Salihamidzic called me 20 minutes before, he said that he saw you two boys outside his house.’

Manuel and Thomas gazed at her with expectant looks, and asked simultaneously, ‘And…?’

‘He asked me if you were doing some ‘kiss challenge’, you know, that teenager stuff.’

‘What?’

Mrs. Neuer shrugged, ‘He told me you were kissing for an hour and half outside his house. You were snogging each other when he left the house and you were still kissing by the time he got back.’

The boys exchanged a glance, gaping at each other in astonishment.

‘Actually I don’t really mind you two doing this kind of challenge, but I have to warn you to be careful. I’ve read the news that some kids were severely drained after long-time snogging and were sent to hospital–’

‘No, mom,’ Manuel exclaimed in hopelessness, ‘it’s not supposed to be like that! He got it all wrong.’

Mrs. Neuer frowned at him, ‘What do you mean?’

‘We didn’t kiss for an hour and half, we… um, yeah, we happened to be kissing each other when he got out and again happened to be kissing when he got back.’ stammered Manuel in a panic, ‘No, we were not always there, we didn’t spy on him. We strolled around for a while and halted outside his house by accident, twice. It’s interesting that every time we stopped by, we felt the urge to kiss each other–’

Manuel winked furiously at Thomas. The latter followed it immediately and quickly opened his mouth without a second thought, ‘Because that’s a place of romance–’ he stuttered, ‘Yeah, very romantic. I’m so touched by the romantic love story of that gossi––– Mr. Sali and his, um–’

‘–Bull dog.’ Manuel shrieked in desperation.

‘Yeah, that dog.’ Thomas nodded frantically, ‘He would humor him with great generosity cause he’s an anti-clockwise type whereas that little bull dog is a clockwise type. He always compromises every time they are at odds.’

Mrs. Neuer smiled faintly with a bemused expression showing on her wrinkled face, ‘That’s pretty weird.’

‘Yeah, we have the same thought, what a coincidence!’ Manuel let out a plastic chuckle, dragging Thomas back to the room in a flurry while fumbling with words, ‘It’s a bit of late–––no no, not too late yet, that’s a comparative description. But we are indeed a bit of tired so–––good night, mom! Love you too, dad!’

They stumbled back to the bedroom like thieves, with their shoulders hunched and their heads down. The boys slouched against the door, puffing and panting with cheeks swelling like angry blowfishes. All the weariness was clearly written on their faces.

‘A love story of Mr. Salihamidzic and his bull dog?’ Manuel shook his head wearily, ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘Well, at least now you know how those anecdotes are spawned and spread.’ Thomas heaved a sign, he truly felt sorry for this hapless stranger.

It was extraordinary that this was a night of peace, with smooth talks and light-hearted chats. For once the main focus of their talks wasn’t about how to trick Manuel’s parents so as to smoothly carry out their plans. They reached a spontaneous agreement that they might as well just go with the flow and let god roll the dice, which meant, those various cleverly stupid ideas would be remained on ice. But the secret about that contract would be kept still.

Manuel offered Thomas a choice to leave any time since he no longer needed a sidekick to help him carry out those ridiculous plans, but he admitted that he preferred to stay. On one hand, he explained that although the plans were all put on ice, he still had to fulfill that contract, on the other hand, he really enjoyed the life here.

‘I enjoy lodging with you guys, really. Though it’s you who pay me instead. Conversely, you know.’ Thomas laughed.

Manuel couldn’t tell how happy he was.

‘So, what’s our plan for tomorrow?’ asked Manuel tentatively, fighting to suppress the frenzy of excitement deep in his head.

‘Dunno. Any suggestion?’

Manuel made a face, ‘I don’t even have one in my mind.’

‘Cinema? Museum? Park? Bar?’

‘What about bar?’

‘I’m okay with it. Then bar it is. I haven’t seen you drinking. I expect to see you get drunk after a pint of Nutella cocktail.’ chuckled Thomas.

‘Shut it.’ Manuel rolled his eyes. He pulled the covers a bit more higher to his chin, to comfortably cover himself as he felt a gust of chill wind storming in through the window. ‘Tuck yourself in, don’t catch cold.’

‘Yes daddy.’ Thomas giggled silently, covering his mouth with the quilt.

‘Not funny. I’m going to sleep.’

‘Wait,’ Thomas wiped his tears and stopped laughing, ‘one last question, why is Teddy not sleeping with us?’ He pointed at the giant fluffy bear sitting crookedly on the stool in the corner, a pair of black bean-like eyes staring at them in puzzlement.

‘Um, we made an agreement that every once in a while I should place him on the stool cause it will do good to his, eh, spine.’

_Sorry Teddy, I know the s-word is a taboo to you. I truly apologize for that._

Thomas laughed, ‘You are funny.’

‘Thanks for your generous compliment.’ Manuel let out a nervous titter, ‘Anyway, I gotta sleep. Goodnight.’

‘Night, Manu Bear.’ Thomas chuckled, a string of mild giggles ringing merrily in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit it that I wrote Brazzo as a somewhat anti-protagonist(not sure if I could describe it this way but he actually gave me the impression of a tight-fisted employer so...)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of drama wouldn't hurt...(I suppose)

Day 4

‘How about this one?’ asked Manuel tentatively, taking a dark green hoodie out of the closet, ‘I think that jacket doesn’t exactly fit the slacks.’

‘Um, I don’t like this one.’ mumbled Thomas.

Manuel tossed that hoodie on the bed, where a large mound of crumpled clothes already piled up. It was only six o’clock, two hours before their appointed time, yet Manuel feared it was already too late for himself to get all dressed up.

‘How about this turtleneck?’ Manuel plugged away at finding a proper outfit for himself, although for now, it didn’t go pretty smooth.

‘I’m not quite sure. But honestly speaking,’ Thomas frowned at him, looking puzzled, ‘I don’t know why you are so bothered about what to wear. We just go there for a drink, not to attend some opening ceremony. You can be naked if you like.’

‘I’m fully aware of that. I just don’t want to embarrass you.’ muttered Manuel, pouting his mouth in a childish manner. ‘Wait, I don’t mean to make you feel guilty.’ He hastened to say, waving his hands frantically when he caught a glimpse of the surprising look on Thomas’ face.

Thomas chuckled, ‘I don’t really mind bringing a grandpa for a drink. Anyway–’ he paused, rummaging around the clothes hanging in the closet and pulling out a crumpled maroon woolly jumper, ‘I think this one suits you, a fluffy bear wearing a fluffy jumper, excellent.’

Manuel took the woolly jumper and cradled it against his broad chest, ‘You like it?’ he asked dubiously. His doubts settled after Thomas gave him a firm nod.

He quickly buttoned up the shirt and put on that maroon jumper. ‘Done.’ said Manuel briefly, ‘But the hair’s still a mess.’ He mumbled, with a hint of displeasure in his voice. ‘For god’s sake, where’s the comb?’

He suddenly felt two gentle hands gripping him by the upper arm right when he was frantically rifling through a heap of dusty stuff deposited on the rack. ‘Stand still, and turn around.’ murmured Thomas, running his fingers through Manuel’s messy hair, carefully combing them out. Manuel stared at him from above, observing the moves of his wrists, not even daring to breathe too heavily. He liked it when Thomas was fully concentrated, which was so unlike him, but meanwhile looked pretty charming.

 _I’m already charmed._ Manuel admitted to himself.

‘Um, should I bend a little?’ Manuel blurted hesitantly when he noticed that Thomas had difficulty reaching the far end of his hair.

Thomas made a face, ‘Hold on. It’s almost done here.’ He used his fingers to comb his hair bit by bit with great patience, smoothed one last strand of stiff hair away and tucked it behind his ear. ‘Okay, it’s done.’ He clapped his hands with excitement, letting out a hearted, toothy grin, ‘Not that bad actually. By the way, I’m not boasting.’

‘I know that.’ Manuel giggled.

‘Alright,’ Thomas uttered in a buoyant mood, gently patted Manuel’s scorching cheeks, ready to set off, ‘Then off we go! Here, take your coat.’

They wandered along a line of shimmering lamppost, off in the direction where that bar was located. Packs of people passed by as they slowly strolled around the crowded streets, amid merry laughs and shrill cackles. It was clear that these guys were planning to have some fun in the bars, just like them.

Among the gleaming twinkles of lamplight, they saw loads of blurry silhouettes gathering in the opening area under the shining signboard of the bar, swaying and bouncing with the cheerful tune coming from inside. The rhythm was strong and full of vigor, but not strong enough to make itself heard over the shrieks and guffaws of the crowds. Manuel furrowed his eyebrows, pushing the way through the dense crowds while tightly covering his ears, trying to keep those disturbing noises away.

‘I can’t bear it anymore,’ Manuel yelled, ‘It’s too noisy. They are giving me hell!’

‘We are talking about a bar, not a library. This is what it’s supposed to be.’ Thomas shrilled back. His voice was drowned by a wave of loud laughter when a bunch of youngsters walked by.

‘I hope it’ll be quieter inside. I’m nearly deafened by those noises.’ moaned Manuel with a contorted face.

However, things were not exactly what he expected. The music was deafeningly noisy, let alone the loud whistles and those unpleasant, piercing cackles, all mixed into a horrible explosion of noises, a torture to ears.

‘I say we better sit in that corner,’ Thomas pointed at the seat hiding in a far, quiet corner where the noises couldn’t easily reach, ‘What do you think?’

Manuel nodded. They headed in that direction when Thomas suddenly took Manuel’s arm, leaning closer to him as almost half of his body hid behind him, his chin tightly against Manuel’s shoulder.

‘What are you doing?’ gasped Manuel anxiously. He felt his blood racing furiously in the veins, a trace of crimson rising up to his cheeks as Thomas’ soft skin gently rubbing against his neck in a strangely intimate way.

‘Quiet!’ Thomas whispered.

‘But what on earth are you–––’ he halted abruptly when he noticed that a nicely dressed young man was coming this way. He stopped in front of them, politely stretching out his hand, a subtle sneer of amusement playing on his lips.

‘Thomas.’ He uttered, his hand still poising in the air.

Thomas didn’t take it. So he drew it back and pretended that he was patting the dust off his shirt, masking his embarrassment with a smile. His sight fell on Manuel instead after Thomas slammed the door in his face.

‘I’m Max.’ He introduced himself in a grand manner, ‘And you are–––?’

‘Manuel.’ Manuel shook his out-stretching hand politely. He felt a hard grip on his palm.

‘He’s my boyfriend.’ Thomas blurted out unexpectedly after a long-time silence, which earned him a stare of astonishment from the big guy standing beside him.

Manuel’s sight flicked around Max’s face and then back on Thomas for several times. He pondered on the current situation before quickly cracking a bright smile, saying, ‘Yeah, we’ve dated each other since last year. We come here to celebrate our first anniversary.’

‘Congratulations.’ Max cackled, clapping his hands cheerfully, ‘Then I presume I should buy you drinks, you know, as a gift.’ He smirked, ‘So, where are you seated?’

‘Um… we are still looking–––’ Manuel mumbled. He wasn’t quite sure if it was proper to let him know, considering that clearly Thomas was in a bad mood with all the resentment and bitterness written on his face. ‘You see, we haven’t decided yet so…’ he muttered apologetically, meanwhile his sight drifted spontaneously to that corner, which unfortunately, divulged his intentions.

Max cut in, ‘Okay, I get it. That seat in the corner, right?’ he laughed delightfully, ‘Alright, just wait a moment. I’ll join you as soon as possible.’

He gave some gentle pats on Manuel’s broad shoulder, and then left immediately, trotted to the bar counter while greeting some acquaintances with nods. Manuel looked back seconds later, only to find out that Thomas was staring at him sternly. His eyes were blazed with anger, lips pressing tightly into a thin line.

‘Um, I mess it up, again. Right…?’ Manuel carefully muttered under his breath, feeling a growing tenseness gripping his heart.

‘Nah, you do it fine. You just made the acquaintance of a great guy. Congratulations! I’m so proud of you.’ said Thomas sarcastically through gritted teeth. He then loosened his firm grasp on Manuel’s arm and stomped off to that corner, fists clenched. Manuel trailed behind with his head down.

‘So, this Max dude, is he…?’ Manuel opened his mouth cautiously after they finally settled down in their seats, hiding in the quiet corner and away from the crowds.

‘You are right. He’s an ex.’

‘Things didn’t go pretty well when you broke up, right?’ asked Manuel tentatively.

‘Depends on how you define. If you figure that having an impulse of killing him could be defined as ‘not well’, then yah, things didn’t go well between us.’ huffed Thomas resentfully, in a rare descent to aggression which Manuel had never seen before.

‘He crossed a line?’

‘He crossed the line and fired a bomb on this side.’

‘Do you mind telling me–––’

He swallowed the words back in time when Max surprisingly showed himself at this very moment. Manuel gulped down his discomfort and faked a friendly smile, waiting for Max to hand out the beer. He bought each of them a bottle and helped uncap them, being as much hospitable as he could be.

‘That’s very generous of you.’ Manuel forced a smile. He noticed that Thomas remained awfully quiet this whole time. He folded his arm around himself in a highly defensive way, jaws tightly clenched, looking like a beast ready to attack at any time.

Max laughed after hearing Manuel’s saying, he sat down across the couple and held up his bottle, his face brimming with vigor and enthusiasm. ‘Chin-chin.’ He chuckled, taking a sip of the beer. 

Manuel followed, taking a mouthful of his drink whereas Thomas, still in his bad temper, refused to take his sip.

Max coughed slightly, attempting to camouflage his embarrassment. He took another sip of the beer and changed the subject, ‘So, how you two got to know each other?’

_Okay, Max, this time I have the right answer. Bet you didn’t see that coming._

‘We met each other in a café.’ said Manuel in an over-confident manner. Unfortunately that proud look, with chest puffed out and shoulders straightened up, was soon shattered into fragments when Thomas blurted out ‘During a football match’ simultaneously. They froze for a moment, and then gaped at each other with vacant looks.

‘Um, here’s the thing.’ mumbled Manuel, ‘There’s a café in that arena, that’s where we met, during the half time.’

‘That’s fantastic.’ Max cackled, holding up his bottle and crisply taking a draught of beer. ‘Looks like that’s a love at first sight, isn’t it?’

‘Not your business.’ snapped Thomas, fuming with anger.

Max laughed with resignation, gently shook his head and downed the remaining liquid in the bottle, ‘Well, guess I’m not welcomed here. Anyway, Manuel–’ he stretched out his hand for a handshake, ‘glad to know you. I have some other business–’ he emphasized that word in particular, ‘–to do. See ya.’

With that, he left, trotted to the dancing crowds in the center of the bar, not forgetting to give Thomas a somewhat challenging slap on the shoulder before leaving, which was to Thomas’ much disgust. He patted the shoulder frantically as if he was dusting off the ashes. However it seemed that this didn’t go well as he presumed, so Thomas just took off his coat and tossed it on the sofa. Manuel held his breath and observed him in great tenseness, biting his lips thoughtfully, with his head deeply down, not knowing what to say or what to do.

They sat in awkward silence for a while. Thomas rashly downed half of the bottle in one gulp, which, honestly speaking, made him feel on top of the world. A slightly dabbling into daze and dizziness actually made his day. The scene swam in front of his eyes in a most fascinating way, like an elaborately painted masterpiece and he was happy and also honored to be able to swim in this.

He decided to swig down the other half, just like what he did before. However, he was quite disappointed to found out that Manuel put a damper on his plan by seizing his wrist with one hand and took the bottle away from him with the other.

‘Stop it.’ croaked Manuel sternly.

‘Give it back.’ mumbled Thomas impatiently, in an attempt to take the bottle back. That crystal-clear, amber liquid appeared to be so tempting. Manuel pushed the bottle farther away, to the edge of the table, not even paying least attention to whether or not it fell off.

‘No. I won’t allow it. We’ll leave this place.’

‘Why would you? Aren’t you just having fun?–––Making acquaintance with a new friend, drinking together, laughing… There, that’s your new friend, go and say hello to him.’ He snapped, pointing at a blurry, dancing figure in the crowds, right when Max’s loud voice suddenly exploded. They heard his shrill cackles and fragments of his words, which weren’t very pleasant. 

‘What are you thinking? That I’m making friends with him? You can’t be serious.’ Manuel exclaimed in dismay, ‘What makes you think like that?’

‘What makes me think like that?’ Thomas shrieked, repeating his words in a frantic tone, ‘Just look how hospitable you are! Talking and laughing with my awfully wretched ex right under my nose like you don’t even give a shit, pretends like you ever care! What else do you expect me to think?’

Manuel was stunned, ‘Wait, you are mistaken. I do care! –––’ He screamed in high-pitched volume. He didn’t care if anyone else would hear his confession, this time he wanted to be honest with his feelings. ‘Everything I do today, I do it for you. I care about your feelings, I don’t want to embarrass you.’

They fell into silence once again. It didn’t last long however, a piercing guffaw crashing it brutally like a bullet shattering a sheet of glass, stabbing into their hearts and giving them goose bumps. Max was giddy with self-happiness for being in the spotlight, where he was mobbed by hordes of excited, drunken youngsters under dazzling lights. People clustered around him, gazing at him in frenzied admiration, listening to him jesting about encountering his pathetic ex.

‘–––And he still held a strong grudge against me!’ cried Max, waving his hands frantically, ‘Can you believe it? I just did a mild prank on him, totally harmless. And he loathed me to this day. For three years–––’

The clusters kicked up a fuss, blowing whistles, guffawing hysterically and running riot like a herd of rampaging beasts. ‘You want to see him, lads?’ screamed Max, taking a bottle handed over from the crowds, gulping down half of the alcohol without hesitation. ‘He’s hiding in the corner, just like he used to be. Hiding! Only the faint-hearted hide!’

Swarms of fanatical drunken youngsters were once again burst into laughter. ‘Um, that doesn’t look good. We should leave, really.’ croaked Manuel frankly, grabbing his wrist.

‘Whatever.’ hissed Thomas indifferently, ‘I need some fresh air. And I don’t care what you do. You can leave if you like–’ He cast a cross glare at Manuel, breaking loose from his grasp, ‘Just stay away from me.’

Then he got up and stamped out of the bar. For a while Manuel just remained still, like a lifeless sculpture, gazing at where Thomas vanished away seconds ago with a bemused expression. He had a bad vibe that this was going to be a long night. Manuel heaved a heavy sigh, and downed the remaining liquid, letting the dizzy feelings take over himself. The loud music thundered in his ears, still haunting in his head like a ghost refusing to leave. The funny thing was, the disturbing noises which agitated him so much before didn’t seem to be that agitating anymore. He assumed this soothing, relaxing state should be credited to the lovely alcohol.

Manuel trailed wobbly through the crowds, staggered to the counter in feeble paces. Everything around him was vague and seemed to be twisted, distorted into something misshapen. It took him a while before successfully struggling to the counter eventually. The bartender poured him a cup of drink. He took it and swigged it down in a blink of eye. It was harder to satisfy his appetite as he drank more and more until finally, it became impossible as he literally felt that a single shot of liquor couldn’t arouse his excitement anymore. He tossed the cup aside, leaning against the counter while blinking his eyes in a vain attempt to remain rational. His mind was full of chaos, fogged by a haze of confusion. And so was the scene in front of him, clusters of drunken people dancing and shaking to a blur, making it hard to see through.

Except one–––Max was standing in the center of the stage, above the crowds, brandishing a flag in a boasting manner, still jeering at Thomas. Manuel stared at him, an idea crossing his mind in a way that was crystal clear. He stomped steadfastly to the crowds in firm strides, approaching the guy step by step.

‘–It frightened the life out of him.’ Max taunted, ‘He was scared away by a prank. Can you believe it?’

Manuel was almost deafened by the outburst of furious jeers. He snorted in displeasure while continued on pushing his way through the excited mob of youngsters. He managed to squeeze out of the dense crowds and hopped on the stage at last, by then he was already sweaty and completely drained.

‘Hey, Max!’ yelled Manuel with all his strength, ‘I have a word for you.’

The crowds fell into silence, staring at them in astonishment. Max slowly turned to him, with a sneering smile playing on his face, his eyebrows lifted in a half-joking, half-bemused manner.

‘I’m listening.’

‘Fuck off.’ Manuel replied calmly. That mocking smile vanished from Max’s face, and was soon replaced by a frightening look instead. The next second, Manuel punched him square in the face without hesitation.

Thomas was sitting on the kerb alongside a shimmering lamppost, bathed in its weak gleams as if in hope that this might more or less make him feel warm. It was freezing out there. The gusts of sharp winds never stopped, roughly ruffling his hair and ferociously sweeping his face. He cuddled himself, staring vacantly at the softly glowing light cast from above while shivering with cold, regretting not bringing his coat with him. His head ached, seized by the overwhelming dizziness and disorientation, and the icy beer didn’t agree with his stomach. He felt miserable, physically as well as emotionally.

He didn’t know why he was so pissed at Manuel. Deep in mind he was fully aware that none of this was Manuel’s fault, yet he snapped at him, shrieking and roaring like an unreasonable child, totally losing it. He couldn’t understand why he suddenly flew off the handle in there.

Thomas let out a weary sigh, rubbing his face in exhaustion, feeling his palms soaked wet. Never before had he been so upset about himself.

He started reflecting on what Manuel said back there once he regained his composure. His croaking voice was echoing in his head, churning up his emotions.

_‘Everything I do today, I do it for you.’_

He felt his heart stopped for a beat. Now he was even more upset about himself.

People in flocks came and went, howling and guffawing hysterically. Thomas turned his head and glanced at the gate of the bar, where packs of drunken fellows rushed out like a tide. For a moment he expected that Manuel might be among them, however, he dropped the idea on second thought, realizing that it was of great possibility that Manuel had already gone. Nonetheless, he made up his mind that he ought to go back and at least search for him, to apologize to him personally.

Not until Max left, that was for sure. He had had enough of his lousy face and his lame, shitty jokes. He preferred never confronting him ever again.

Manuel caught him off guard when he was still deep in thoughts, contemplating on how to properly utter an apology. ‘There you are.’ He yelled with excitement, ‘Here, your coat.’ He tottered to him, handing him his coat, a bit of wobbly.

‘What’s wrong with your face?’ exclaimed Thomas in astonishment. He noticed the scratches on Manuel’s face at first glance.

‘Oh, that. Max hit me.’

‘What? Why would he do that?’

‘Cause I punched him in the face.’ Manuel crowed cheerfully, clapping his hand in a jubilant manner, ‘I think he’s got a purple eye, and a broken nose. Great, now he’s much prettier…’

Thomas had an ominous hunch that they were stepping into a vicious circle, all thanks to that evil drink.

‘For god’s sake, Manuel, you are drunk!’

Manuel shook his index finger, ‘That’s an unfair accusation.’ He pouted and darted a disgruntled look at him, pulling a long face, ‘I strongly suggest you reconsidering that cause technically speaking, I’m still pretty functional, physically as well as mentally.’

‘Shut up, I’m gonna call a taxi.’

‘Why? I can drive us home.’ retorted Manuel, ‘Wait, lemme find the key first. It’s a bit of tricky, where is it? It’s playing hide-and-seek with me. I remember putting it in my boxers…’

‘Manuel, stop it.’ Thomas whispered anxiously, meanwhile grabbed his wrist, immensely in fear that he might actually take off his pants to enjoy the pleasure of playing hide-and-seek on the street.

‘Why? I haven’t found the key yet.’ asked Manuel in bewilderment, trying to wriggle out of Thomas’ firm grasp at the same time.

‘We walked here, remember?’ murmured Thomas, in an unavailing attempt to talk some sense into him, ‘That means, there’s no key here. So just quit it. I’m going to call a taxi.’

‘Oh, taxi.’ Manuel croaked, his eyes blazed with radiant glitters, ‘Great. It turns out, I happened to put a taxi into my pocket right before we left the house. And it’s a Mercedes-Benz CLK 320, isn’t that fabulous? The engine is strong enough to prop up a long-time flight. You are lucky to have the chance to join me for a ride. No, not proper–––it’s me inviting you actually.’

‘Manuel, you are giving me headaches.’ Thomas sighed in despair, feeling himself fighting a losing battle, ‘Stop babbling. And stand steady, I can’t hold you if you keep wriggling like that.’

‘You are so considerate.’ Manuel let out a string of foolish giggles, earning them several mocking glances from the passers-by.

Thomas decided to go back to the drawing board and changed his tactics, just let Manuel babble as he wished, considering that right now their first priority was to hail a taxi. He couldn’t do it if he was kept distracted all the time as all he thought about was to correct Manuel’s every piece of nonsense.

A taxi pulled off fifteen minutes later. It took Thomas great efforts to stuff the big drunken guy into the cab. Manuel kept rattling on and on about his whims.

‘You know I’ve got a cleavage on my butt?’ said him in a simper, ‘A cleavage! Isn’t that amazing?’

‘That’s your cleft, not cleavage.’

‘Given its size and depth, I think it’s more proper to be defined as trench.’

‘Trench or not, stop babbling nonsense.’ Thomas groaned, heaving a sigh of exhaustion.

They were finally back home after a long, excruciating ride. Thomas was half relieved to find out that Mr. and Mrs. Neuer wasn’t at home. It was pitch black in there. They both felt a bit of disorientation when suddenly being exposed under the strong glittering lights after Thomas switched on the chandelier in the living room.

‘What’s that?’ Manuel yelped in hysterical screams.

‘Um, that’s light.’

‘I don’t like it. Get it out of here.’

‘But we need it to see.’

‘No, you don’t understand. I feel bad. It makes me feel sick.’ Manuel moaned, frantically waving his hands, trying to block the sparkling beams.

‘That’s because you downed a hell lot of alcohol.’ Thomas sighed, ‘Look, we are going to the bathroom to get you cleaned up. You won’t see it once we get there. So, move up, the sooner we get there, the sooner you can be rid of this.’

Manuel didn’t move immediately however, he clung to Thomas tightly in apprehension, voice trembling, ‘You know, I have an ominous feeling that something was going to rush out, that feeling when a writer’s inspiration was triggered. But it’s an evil inspiration. And it’s going to erupt.’

‘Okay, get it.’ Thomas breathed out a sigh, struggling to usher Manuel into the bathroom while trying his best not to bump or stumble on anything.

Manuel started throwing up the instance they stepped in there and puked up a puddle of disgusting amber vomit in the sink. He felt his stomach was in flames and tasted a smell of disgusting acid in his throat which he wasn’t so fond of. The horrible stink of vomits caused a wave of nausea, making him spew up again, which in return, helping him get some of his senses back. Now he knew where they were right now and how he got ended up like this–––cursed that vile drink.

He felt Thomas gently patting his back, his gentle touch rubbing against the fabric of his clothes in tender moves, trying to soothe his discomfort. Manuel suddenly had the urge – which he didn’t quite understand why it aroused at this improper moment – of expressing himself.

‘You look sexy–’ He blurted out, dreamily gazing at Thomas. The following words were already at the tip of his tongue when, unfortunately, a fit of racking coughs suddenly seized his throat and forced him to swallow them back.

‘Yeah, everyone looks sexy in a blur.’ Thomas rattled off in grunts, ‘Stop talking. Or you may choke yourself.’ He muttered by his ear, with a hint of concern in his voice.

‘No, no.’ Manuel struggled to spew out some words, ‘When I’m free, I’m definitely going to write an essay to tell you why you are sexy and how this trait is projected on you. And the third part is how it works on me.’ He paused, taking in a deep breath, ‘Are you willing to preface it?’

Thomas chuckled, ‘Alright, Manuel, that’s enough. You are asking too much of me.’ He tenderly ruffled his hair with an implicit fondness, ‘Come, get yourself cleaned and we’ll be done here.’

Having experienced a lousy night, a soft bed, with fluffy pillows and feathered quilts, was literally like heaven to them. Those feelings, when one could finally settle down to enjoy the loving caress of the soft covers, made them feel on top of the world.

Manuel was still in a half-dizzy, half-awake state. The backwash of drunkenness was still haunting him. He could hear Thomas chattering away excitedly by his ear, yet he was only able to catch scraps of his mumbles. He willed his watery eyes to stay open, keeping his head reasonably erect. It was difficult, however, he didn’t want to commit a double blunder like what he did back in that café – that was unbearable.

‘You tired?’ Thomas blurted out, gazing at him in the darkness with bright, gleaming eyes.

Manuel shook his head resolutely, ‘Tiredness is a conception based on individual perception and each has a different set of criteria to measure his endurance, which means, my standard may not agree with yours and personally, I don’t feel tired, and you may have doubts about it but it’s okay, I totally respect that–––’

Thomas chuckled, ‘Okay, I get it. It’s time to sleep.’

‘Wait, wait, I haven’t finished yet.’ Manuel suddenly grabbed Thomas’ wrist, looking at him with a fervent glitter sparkling in his big blue eyes. ‘I have to tell you something.’

‘Okay… What’s it?’

‘Yesterday while we were out there, our final chance to carry out our plan, pretending to be kissing, remember that?’ stammered Manuel, ‘Well, I didn’t do it for our plan, not entirely. I did it because I really wanted to kiss you.’

There was a tense, eccentric silence haunting the room for an agonizingly long time until Thomas finally opened his mouth, shattering it with his soft voice in a slightly incredulous tone, ‘Is that a truth or you just make it up then?’

‘It’s a truth.’

Thomas paused for a moment, ‘You said you didn’t share truth with others.’

‘But you are not ‘others’, you are different.’ croaked Manuel, ‘I leave a special place for you, right here.’ He pointed at his chest.

A faint smile stealthily crawled on Thomas’ face. He moved closer to Manuel, his head resting on his broad chest, feeling his strong, rhythmic heartbeats as if listening to a confession.

‘Manuel, would you still date me without that contract?’ murmured Thomas in dreamily brooding voice.

‘Why not? You are cute, sometimes a bit of annoying though.’ Manuel exhaled a deep sigh, ‘But you wouldn’t agree even if I dare to ask, would you?’

Thomas licked his lips thoughtfully before letting out a mild mumbling, ‘You’ll see.’ He spoke in a soft whisper, as if musing to himself, ‘Goodnight, Manuel.’

‘Goodnight.’ Manuel grumbled ambiguously, quickly falling into a trance.

Manuel couldn’t recall most of their experiences last night but some vague fragments which didn’t fit together the next morning when he woke up. His head was still heavy, and he had an odd feeling that something wasn’t right – he felt himself being weighed down with something. Manuel turned his head, trying to figure out what it was that pinned him down, only to let out a horrendously hysterical yelp, remaining totally speechless for quite a while.

‘For god’s sake, Thomas!’ shrieked Manuel in horror, ‘You are sleeping on my butt!’

‘What?’ Thomas grumbled, reluctantly casting a glance at Manuel, ‘Stop joking, my head is resting rightfully on the pillow…’ He caught a glimpse of his pillow through half-opened eyes, which was dumped on the floor, far beyond reach. For a split second he was wide awake and realized that something was definitely not in place.

‘Holy Fuck!’ he yelped, eyes wide open, ‘How come your butt is even softer than my pillow?!!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to admit, the scene of Thomas accidentally sleeping on Manuel's butt and shouting Manuel's butt even softer than pillow is the very first part I've plotted for this story. XD


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler alert (for those of you who haven't watched Night at the Museum yet XD I'm kidding)

Day 5

Drinking yourself into a stupor in front of the guy whom you happened to hold a fervent crush was enough to abash you to hell to say the least. Throwing up like an erupting volcano was even more embarrassing. Waking up to find yourself tangled with the said crush in a peculiar position, however, could even eclipse those two. And let’s not forget the brilliant part where he’s sleeping cozily on your butt, it was like an icing on the cake. For most of us, having experienced one of those was enough to have a taste of a long lasting, agonizing feeling of shame, whereas Manuel, being the fortune’s favorite as he always were, experienced all of those in no more than 12 hours.

_If I ever intend to write a biography, the title would definitely gonna be ‘Manuel Neuer: Hell Mode of Life’, prefaced by a drunk Manuel._

He took a quick shower, put on his bathrobe before stumbling back to the bedroom. Thomas already got up, sitting comfortably on the bed, leafing through a magazine when he came in. Manuel felt his cheeks growing scarlet instantly when their sights locked.

‘Hi there.’ Thomas exclaimed briskly, ‘Glad to see you finally sobered up.’

‘Speaking of this, um,’ Manuel nervously grunted, rubbing the back of his neck, ‘did I do something… I mean something that’s eh, I don’t know, weird?’

‘Depends. If you reckon that trying to take off your underwear and show off your perfect butt to everyone on the street was enough to be called ‘weird’ then yes, you sure did a handful of weird things back there. You told me the cleft on your butt should be called as trench, cause it was bigger and deeper.’ said Thomas, barely being able to stifle a laugh.

Manuel’s jaw dropped.

‘I’m going to kill myself.’

Thomas couldn’t suppress a chuckle, ‘And you punched Max, which in return, got yourself some scratches.’

‘Oh, I don’t regret that. He totally deserved it.’ Manuel croaked in a crisp tone, ‘Anything else? Did I say anything inappropriate?’

Thomas thought for a moment, ‘Nothing.’ He uttered briefly, making up his mind to keep what they chatted about last night all to himself.

Manuel heaved a sigh of relief, ‘Thank goodness. Seems that at least I managed to remain some of my sanity.’

Thomas shook his head lightly in stealth, hiding his face behind the magazines when he found it difficult to repress a chuckle anymore.

‘So…Do you mind telling me what happened between you and that bastard?’ mumbled Manuel tentatively, crawling onto the bed and settling himself alongside Thomas, ‘Though I’m totally okay with it if you prefer not talking about it. I won’t bring it up again if that makes you feel uncomfortable, I swear–––’

‘Alright,’ Thomas cut in, covering Manuel’s babbling mouth with his hand to stop him, ‘I can tell you. But don’t tell others, just keep it between us, okay?’

Manuel answered him with a resolute nod. ‘So… it was my birthday and Max said he rented a house to throw a party. He explained that the whole gang, you know, his fellow friends, would be there so that was why we need a bigger house. The party was held at midnight and he told me they prepared a big surprise, anyway–––’ He sighed wearily, ‘I went there at the scheduled time. It was pitch dark in there, Max didn’t allow me to turn on the light. I stumbled, slipped on a pool of slimy fluid. Max told me it was blood, he said they killed the owner of the house. They told me I stumbled on his body. I was scared, trying to flee. But the door’s locked…’ Manuel gasped in horror, ‘They tried to drag me upstairs. They howled that they were gonna assault me. I managed to wriggle free and escape from the house through the window before any of them can lay a finger on me.’ Thomas let out a deep sigh, ‘The next day Max called me, he said all was a prank. They didn’t kill the house owner, and neither did they have the intentions of doing me any harm. Who knows? He crossed the line, that’s for sure. So I broke up with him. And I’ll never forgive him.’

Manuel was numb with shock and remained dumbfounded for quite a while before finally back to life and slowly opening his mouth, ‘Maybe I should punch him harder back there, that bastard.’

Thomas was amused, ‘You really did that for me?’ he asked tentatively, eyes glittered with a spark of expectation.

‘Absolutely.’

These days, in most cases they didn’t have to worry about what to eat since Mr. and Mrs. Neuer would dish up even before they were there. However, things became different when the couple hit upon an idea of paying a visit to an old friend who lived in the countryside. The kitchen was empty, the cookers were cold as stones and Manuel was unsure of what was the best to do.

‘Mom and dad drove to a friend’s. So, you want to go out for a meal or just, cook at home?’

‘You can cook?’ marveled Thomas, a mischievous smile playing on his face, ‘I remember your mom said you were a terrible cook.’

Manuel wasn’t so glad to hear that, ‘Me? A terrible cook?’ he pouted, ‘No way. I’m going to prove to you, that I’m definitely not a bad cook. Not anymore.’

Turns out, acting on impulse wasn’t a wise choice. It was the second time that Manuel had almost burnt down the entire house. The room was thick with pungent smoke of burnt garlics which nearly choked them. They eventually decided just to go with the takeaway and ordered two pizzas after pathetically realizing that neither of them had a talent for cooking. The delivery boy wrinkled his nose and made a face of aversion when he smelled the terrible odor drifting out of the house.

‘Don’t be afraid, we are not doing, you know, burning a corpse that sort of thing.’ Thomas blinked when he saw the dreadful look on that boy’s face.

‘Actually, we are conducting an exorcism to drive away those spiteful vampires.’ mumbled Manuel with a straight face when signing his name on the takeaway order, ‘You wanna come in and have a look?’

The boy ran away the moment Manuel finished scrawling without a second of delay.

‘Okay, you are definitely gonna get us arrested.’ laughed Thomas heartedly.

‘I assume you can bail me out?’

‘I can’t if I’m held in the cell next to yours.’

‘Seems like it.’ Manuel sniffed out a sigh, ‘I feel sad.’ he muttered, staring in the direction where the figure quickly faded away, ‘But honestly speaking, I kinda enjoy it. Playing a prank on people, that’s an evil pleasure. Evil, but fun. Though I may not be able to feast on it.’

‘Alright, Mr. Philosopher, time to feast on pizzas.’ said Thomas briskly, gently tapped Manuel’s forehead, ‘Or you just gonna stand there all day brooding over your teetering moral values?’

‘Of course not.’ Manuel pretended to be ticked off, ‘It’s just…’ he paused, feeling himself got stuck, ‘Forget it, never mind.’

It was all too obvious that Manuel was haunted during the entire lunchtime, slowly chewing on his share of pizza in an absent manner as if in a dream, not even caring that pizza was listed as his second favorite food. He looked like a not so advanced robot, who could only move as instructed. His eyes remained frozen, and so were the limbs, which presented a scene so eerie in dramatic contrast to that slowly, mechanically chewing mouth.

Thomas found it necessary to break the silence when he noticed that Manuel was starting to chew on the wrapper paper, ‘Manuel?’ he ventured, however ended up with no response, ‘Manuel!’ he yelled, hammering his fist on the table. This proved to be effective. Manuel was startled, immediately throwing that crumpled wrapping paper away.

‘What?’

‘Tell me what’s in your mind.’

Strictly speaking, this was not exactly a question. Manuel realized that this time he couldn’t simply avoid it as he used to, so he just shrugged, resolving on being candid with him.

‘I really don’t know how to get on with them after all of this.’ murmured him frankly, ‘I thought that keeping the whole thing all to myself might be the better idea but now I’m not so sure about it. I don’t know how to live with a lie, a hoax. I don’t know if I can live the same after doing that thing to them.’

He ended the confession with a sigh from his heart, and vented his frustration on that pathetic piece of crumpled wrapping paper by screwing it into a ball. He leant back in a submissive posture, staring vacantly at the wall where there was nothing but blankness.

‘So it all proves that making a hearted apology to them is in fact, the best way.’ Thomas whispered softly.

‘I know you are right. But it’s not that easy. Otherwise there won’t be so many people who would rather risk living in a vicious circle of telling lies over and over again than just come clean in the first place.’ Manuel resigned himself to a profoundly deep sigh. Suddenly that blank wall appeared to be so harsh, unbearable to look directly into it, forcing him to adjust his sight. It once again fell back on Thomas, who was earnestly gazing at him. That gleaming light radiated from those bright eyes surprisingly comforted Manuel more or less, which gave him some strength. ‘Tell me, if I were your child, how would you react to it after you learned about the whole truth?’

Thomas scratched his head and thought deeply about it for a moment before cautiously opening his mouth, ‘I would kick your ass and then kiss you.’

Manuel couldn’t stifle a chuckle, ‘Really? First reprimanding, then rewarding. Is that so? That’s your way of education?’

‘Only apply to you.’ Thomas shrugged, ‘Look, you made a big mistake, we all agree on that. However, you did the wrong thing for a right reason. I won’t neglect that.’ He shot a quick glance at the big guy sitting across him, who appeared to be pretty preoccupied right now, ‘Your parents are too nice to actually reprimand their kid, I can see that. You don’t have to fear being severely rebuked if that’s what keeps you worried all the time.’

‘That’s the problem. I know they don’t have the heart to be firm with me. They barely scolded me even if I really did something wrong. Sometimes I just wished they would simply get cross and kick my ass instead but not this–’ He stopped, feeling all those words dying in his throat.

‘–burdened with guilt, huh?’ followed Thomas. He left his seat and slowly shuffled to Manuel’s side, hugging him from behind and letting out soft purrs while his chin was comfortably resting on the crown of Manuel’s head. The smell of shampoo was soothing. His soft, fluffy hair rubbed against Thomas’ skin in such a gentle way that almost like a mother’s tender caress. Their fingers locked over Manuel’s broad, heaving chest. It just came naturally. ‘Listen,’ Manuel heard Thomas’ muffled voice ringing above his head, ‘if you have trouble making an apology face to face, you could write a letter instead.’

‘Thanks for the suggestion, my dear consultant.’ Manuel chuckled, ‘I presume the extra consulting service is for free, right?’

‘For now.’ Thomas rolled his eyes. He looked around the house, where there was full of bright colors. The different hues were mixed into a perfect harmony, and the laughs as well as the heated chats echoing in the small rooms bringing life and vitality to it. _That’s home_ , he murmured to himself. He remembered the first time when he entered the house, all the lights switched on, radiating a consistent blaze of warmth. Mrs. Neuer warmly welcomed him with a big smile of fondness, she was truly happy for her boy.

_That’s… unthinkable._

Manuel was vigorously rambling about something that failed to reach Thomas’ ears, cradling his hands to his chest. ‘I have a feeling that every reasonable plan in this whole thing is actually your breeding. I do appreciate that–’

‘I envy you, really.’ Thomas blurted out, catching Manuel by surprise. His voice sounded far away, as if coming from dreamland.

Manuel was utterly bemused, ‘And why is that?’

‘You always have their back no matter what you do.’ He exhaled a dreamy sigh, ‘I don’t have it.’

‘How come?’

‘We live in the countryside, you know, people there are not that open-minded. It took them seven years to accept the fact that I truly am a homosexual.’

Manuel vacantly stared at the table, suddenly feeling the weight of Thomas’ hands within his hold. He gingerly brought himself to speak once again after a long time of silence, fumbling with words, ‘It’s sad. However it’s good to know it had a happy ending after all.’ He stammered, feeling his tongue not under control.

‘You may be right. But the gap between us – after all those years against each other – is hard to mend.’

Manuel lapsed in to a tense silence. He could feel Thomas breathing sorrowfully above his head. It was heartbreaking, and agonizing as well, to learn about the grief of a man who was so accustomed to laughing through everything in his life. He used the bright smile to veil all of his pain and people just took it for granted, they almost forgot that he too, had a sore spot. But the painful memories wouldn’t cease to exist just because people refused to see it, they still stung, leaving an old scar that would never wore away.

He wanted to give him some nice soothing words, a comforting hug, a kiss. However none of it seemed to be easy to do. So he just held his hands harder, giving him a firm grip while gently rubbing the back of his hand. The clock ticked away in rhythmic sounds while the sky gradually grew darker, Manuel starting to wonder if he already fell asleep cause it seemed that they had remained still for almost centuries. His doubt was cleared a second later when he heard a sniffing sound coming from above.

‘Hey, remember you once talked about the movie night?’ asked Manuel tentatively, ‘You want it?’

Thomas thought for a moment, ‘Not thrillers.’

Manuel chuckled, pinching his palms affectionately, ‘Okay, no thrillers.’

They decided on _Night at the Museum_ at last, mostly because that was what was playing right now on the movie channel. Thomas let out a piercing shriek, cringing in fright when he saw that giant T-Rex skeleton appearing on the television, roaring deafeningly and galloping in heavy paces towards them as if it might break out of the screen at this very opportune moment.

‘Oh god, I can’t watch this.’ Thomas groaned fearfully, cuddling up against Manuel while covering his eyes, ‘It’s horrible.’

‘It’s not even a thriller.’ protested Manuel, half grated, half amused.

‘It has a T-Rex! A master once said, where there’s a T-Rex, there’s the smell of horror films.’

Manuel snorted a giggle, ‘I assume this master is none other than you, my dearest master of mischiefs, am I correct?’

The said master faked a look of being offended and folded his arms in a childish manner, looking like a ridiculous globefish with his cheeks clownishly puffed out. ‘Okay, I surrender.’ Manuel laughed out a reply, finding it so hard to stop giggling that he almost lost his breath, ‘Maybe we should seriously consider whether there’s indeed a logical connection between T-Rex and the horror genre. But I figure at least _Toy Story_ can be reckoned as an exception, that’s what we all agree, huh?’

Thomas rolled his eyes with a snort, ‘I start missing that quiet-morose-reserved you. How lovable you were then.’ He shook his head and sniffed out a sigh, ‘miss the old times.’

‘I can change back if you want.’ Manuel smirked, winking mischievously at him.

‘Nein. I doubt the safety of this process. What if it crashes your brain and makes you a muttonhead even worse than that of when you were drunk?’

‘Then I would be able to carve myself a place in the history of the dumbest scientific experiments.’ snorted Manuel with a detached face, ‘But seriously, have you ever seen a T-Rex skeleton in real life before? It’s really not that scary.’

Thomas shook his head, ‘Never actually been to a museum before.’

Manuel gazed at him thoughtfully, ventured, ‘Do you want to pay a visit to the municipal museum?’

‘Not a bad idea.’

‘So that’s it. We are going to the museum tomorrow.’ Manuel exclaimed. As if in response to his words, the T-Rex in the movie let out an excited, powerful roar, which almost caused Thomas to spring out of the sofa, meanwhile, gave Manuel a good reason to laugh, ‘I assure you the dinosaur skeletons you are about to see won’t run like this.’ He chuckled, suddenly decided to play a prank on second thought as a playful smirk spreading across his face, ‘They are gentle, good-natured, easy to get along with as long as you do not speak to them with a thick accent.’

‘Hilarious.’ Thomas snorted in a sarcastic tone, yet his eyes obviously brimmed with joy, glittering with expectations. He crawled back to Manuel’s side and snuggled up against his shoulder, stifling a yawn while fighting against the urge to sleep. Manuel’s warm chest and his quiet, regular breathing made him feel pleasantly drowsy.

It was raining outside. At first it was merely drizzling, then it turned into a huge thunderstorm. The rumble of thunder in the distance was as frightening as the roar of the horrible T-Rex that would make people’s hair bristle. Yet it didn’t spook him. He felt safe, and sheltered. He was relieved to know that he finally had someone to cuddle up together.

‘Did they catch the T-Rex?’ slurred Thomas sleepily in dreamy voices when he heard the characters starting fighting against each other.

‘They won’t catch the T-Rex. It’s on their side. It’s a good fellow. Oh, I forget to tag ‘spoiler alert’. My bad.’ Manuel mumbled incoherently in slight doze, failing to stifle a great yawn. He presumed it was fairly late, there was no other voices but the dull drizzling sound. Manuel snatched a glance at the boy lightly leaning against him, ‘Back to bed?’

A soft murmur drifted out of Thomas’ throat, ‘I prefer sofa.’

‘Then I’ll stay.’

‘Brilliant.’ Thomas sniffed out a mild chuckle, clinging to Manuel closer with his arms loosely wrapping around his shoulders, ‘I catch you. Now you are under my command.’

‘At your disposal.’

Thomas let out a soft purr of satisfaction, he rubbed himself affectionately against the fuzzy fabrics of Manuel’s pyjamas and ventured boldly, ‘Can I sleep on your butt? Just one more time?’

A pause of silence, and then came a snort.

‘Don’t you ever think about it.’


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The description about the Munich Municipal Museum (I'm not sure if the name is even correct) is all fictional.

Day 6

They wasn’t quite sure what it was that awakened them, whether it was the banging sound the moment the door was slammed shut when Mr. and Mrs. Neuer came back home or the noises coming from the television or they just woke up naturally. Anyway, none of these mattered. All of them seemed to be minor problems, overshadowed by the fact that they forgot to turn off the television last night and let it run for an entire night and it viciously happened to be playing a horrifically toe-curling clip. 

And Manuel made a downright bad decision of foolhardily turning off the television in the nick of time, as if in a guilty haste.

‘Hey mama,’ Manuel forced an embarrassing smile, ‘What brings you back?’

‘The car brought us back.’ Mrs. Neuer uttered briefly, darting a meaningful look at the nervous boys, ‘You don’t want us back?’

‘No! Definitely not!’ Manuel waved his hands frantically, ‘Of course we want you back. We even let the television play the whole night and the reason why we let the television play for a whole night is that, um–’

_Here’s your part, master of mischiefs._ He glanced at Thomas subconsciously, who had no option but to brace himself and brazen it out. The words ‘–cause we really miss your tuneful voices’ slipped out of his tongue before he could stop them.

‘Exactly.’ Manuel tuned in.

‘Um, but you are watching a porn.’

Manuel felt his heart missed a beat. _The 28 th possible cause of death of Manuel Neuer, already on the way. _

‘No. It’s not about the category, it’s the voice that matters.’ Manuel stuttered, attempting to turn the tide, but only doing himself a grave disservice with those meaningless ramblings, ‘Those characters, they have voices very similar to yours. And I thought of you when I heard them–’

‘Having an intercourse?’ replied Mr. Neuer with a deadpanned face.

‘I won’t say it’s that far off the mark…’ Manuel licked his lips nervously, and eventually decided to surrender, ‘Okay, I’m sorry. My tongue’s hexed and everything that comes out is a mistake. So just forget it, don’t take it in mind. And by the way, their voices–’ he pointed at the screen, ‘are not as pleasant as yours.’ And then he grabbed Thomas’ wrist and shuffled back to the room, too hasty to notice the couple silently guffawing behind them.

‘I messed up, again.’ Manuel whined painfully on their way to the museum. He kept wincing at the thought of ticking his parents off and he couldn’t stop moaning and grumbling as they sauntered along the street. He caught a glimpse of an irritating crow, which skimmed over their heads, creaking to a halt and alighting on the branch, ghastly shrieking at them. ‘Even the crow is mocking at me!’ Manuel grunted bleakly.

‘If you look on the bright side, you earned yourself a perfect opportunity for rehearsing. Now you won’t feel that tense when the time comes and you are due to make an official apology for hoaxing them. See? It’s really not that difficult to apologize face to face.’

‘I literally don’t know how you manage to take every terrible thing in stride. I wonder if that’s your superpower.’ Manuel let out a soft chuckle.

‘I’m not sure about that. But honestly speaking, I feel it’s mostly my fault, for bringing up the whole voice stuff, you know.’ Thomas’ voice trailed off.

‘I don’t blame you.’ said Manuel promptly, gingerly casting a sideways glance at him.

‘Doesn’t change the fact.’ Thomas heaved a sigh of depression, ‘I’m thinking, maybe we could buy them a gift, as an apology. What do you think about it? Is there a gift shop in the museum?’

‘There is one but…’

‘So what are we waiting for?’ exclaimed Thomas in high-pitched voice, being so hyped up that he gripped Manuel by the hand and started trotting immediately without second thought, ‘Come, quicken your pace!’ he yelped, voice trembling with exhilaration, ‘We are already late and I don’t wish to see it already closed by the time we get there.’

Manuel wasn’t a dab hand at running, and neither was Thomas. Therefore when they got there, their exhausted, heavily panting looks were not at all in harmony with the overall solemn, grim atmosphere of the museum as well as the visitors who were sauntering around the halls in a quiet and relaxing posture with an air of elegance.

They stayed in the central hall for quite a while, hunching down a little bit, trying to steady their trembling legs while gasping for air.

‘I was trying to tell you–’ Manuel stammered in between violent coughs, feeling himself almost cough out his insides, ‘we are making a detour. We don’t have to bother coming here if we only want to buy a gift. There are so many gift shops out there.’

Thomas was struck by surprise, ‘God, I forget that.’ He murmured with a vacant look.

Manuel waved his hands, ‘Never mind. Come, I’ll take you to the gift shop.’

The gift shop was on the top floor of the museum. The staff greeted Manuel with immense enthusiasm, which stunned Thomas to the utmost.

‘They know you.’ He whispered by Manuel’s ear, ‘You are a regular customer?’

Manuel shook his head and laughed, ‘I’m an employee of the museum.’ And then he tripped off in brisk paces, zigzagging through the labyrinth of shelves, humming in a light mood.

‘Wait,’ Thomas trotted to catch up on him, ‘You work here? That’s cool! So… you are in charge of the exhibits?’

‘Sort of.’ Manuel shrugged, ‘I can tell you a secret. It’s my trick. Whenever I confront someone whom I dislike, I just tell them I have to sleep with dead animals and dead people when I’m on a night shift and they run away immediately and never come bothering me ever again.’ A mischievously childish smile played on Manuel’s face, ‘Works every time.’

Inside the gift shop was a spectacle of fantasy with all kinds of amazing stuff piled up to the ceiling. It definitely worth a visit even if you have no intentions of purchase. Thomas lingered through the shelves, marveling at the exquisite artefacts and especially their elaborate craftsmanship. He brought a porcelain horse down from the shelf with great caution, peering at it admiringly as he gingerly held it in cupped hands.

‘You like it?’ Manuel noticed how attracted he was, stepping closer and taking a glance at it.

‘Not exactly.’ Thomas responded promptly, carefully putting it back. He gently patted Manuel on the back and tripped away from that shelf, ‘Come. We have to choose a proper gift for your parents.’

Choosing a gift was never an easy task. Manuel and Thomas were hugely divided on this problem and until now neither could successfully persuade the other.

‘Who would want a flashlight as a present?’ Manuel yelped, cocking his eyebrow.

‘Who wouldn’t?’ protested Thomas, ‘It generates light. People are happy when they are under the light. It’ll be of great use during the power cut.’

‘With a Goethe’s head printed on it and the beams of light happen to be projected out of his eyes? Seriously?’ Manuel retorted, ‘Of all the fancy goods here, you manage to pick up the dumbest?’

‘That’s unfair.’ Thomas exclaimed with a disgruntled look, ‘This is cool. Just think about it – Goethe with optic beams, it’s hilarious.’

‘And unacceptable for my parents cause they are Goethe’s loyal readers.’ pouted Manuel, snatching the flashlight from Thomas’ grip and putting it back, ‘Don’t give me that puppy look. No way, I won’t give in on this. End of discussion.’

‘Whatever.’ Thomas stomped away in a fit of pique. His attention was soon seized by a giant jigsaw placed on the shelf that he immediately forgot being piqued at Manuel. ‘Look at this!’ He yelled with excitement, ‘I have a great idea. You can write your apology on it. Then they’ll know what you want to say after putting all the pieces back.’

Manuel glanced at the instruction written on the side of the package. It showed that the jigsaw contained 1,000 pieces. That sure was a lot.

‘Umm… what if they fail to put it back, what then?’ Manuel muttered incredulously.

A look of panic crept onto Thomas’ face, ‘Don’t say that to them.’ He cast a warning glance at him, shaking his head disapprovingly, ‘It’s a terrible insult. Mark my words.’

‘Okay, it’s done. Let’s move to our next destination.’ said Manuel briskly, carrying a pack bulging with gifts. At last they decided on an exquisitely-stitched tapestry, which was about the size of a world map with a Goethe’s head elaborately embroidered on it. And by the way, his eyes couldn’t project optic beams, that’s for sure.

‘What’s down there?’ Thomas asked curiously, pointing at the bottom of the pack where he could see a clear outline of a rectangular box which definitely wasn’t part of the tapestry.

‘Oh, that. My colleagues give me that, you know, as an employee’s discount.’ Manuel allowed himself an unimpressed chuckle, a mite nervousness drifting in his voice as his hands covered it intentionally.

Only when they left the gift shop did they realize that it was almost around the closing time, which meant, they couldn’t saunter around the halls in relaxing paces like those visitors did. Manuel wasn’t happy to hear about this. He had a bundle of perfect plans but now all of them had to be put on ice.

‘Umm, it’s okay, really.’ Thomas tried to say something comforting, ‘We can come here next time. There won’t be any problem, since they are all dead animals and dead people. They’ll not just run away overnight like what happened in the movie, right? So, nothing to worry about, really.’

‘Wait.’ Manuel grabbed his wrist and led him to the paleontological exhibits, ‘At least take a look at this. It definitely worth having a look.’

Following his sight, in the center of the hall stood a giant T-Rex skeleton, grim and dignified, looking like a cruel autocrat who took everything in this hall under his command.

‘You are right.’ murmured Thomas slowly, still stunned by this breathtaking spectacle, ‘It’s amazing.’

‘And it’s really not that scary, huh?’ prompted Manuel.

‘Yeah. Look at those gaps, they are huge. If I were eaten by it, I could still escape from its ribs. So it’s really no need to be afraid of if I ever confront a T-Rex in the wild on the evil day.’

Manuel was struck numb for a while, ‘You know they were already extinct right?’

‘Still, it can be of great use when I’m out in the wild. You never know what you will be faced with in the next second, am I correct? Anyway, thanks for being so considerate, Manu Bear.’ Thomas giggled briskly, planting a quick kiss on Manuel’s cheek and then tripping off.

Manuel found it not so delightful when Thomas kept rambling about slipping through T-Rex ribs on their way back home. He decided to retort back until he couldn’t take it anymore and maliciously pointed out that he might still in all likelihood be smashed and crumbled into pieces by its powerful jaw as well as the sharp teeth. 

‘You are cruel.’ Thomas grumbled accusingly.

‘Sorry, just enjoying some evil pleasure. Can’t control it.’ Manuel made a clownish face, sticking out his tongue and giving him a challenging look.

‘You are so dead, bastard.’

‘I checked it a second before, still alive.’

‘I’m gonna take that kiss back.’ Thomas croaked in a threatening tone.

‘Sorry, not refundable.’

They strode back home in brisk trots and joyful ringing laughter. It started snowing unexpectedly during their strolls. When they finally set foot on the doorstep, they were pretty much like two clowns, with laughable foaming white brows and ridiculous fuzzy gray hair. Both were bursting laughing the moment they saw the funny look of each other.

‘Oh, the love birds are back,’ Mrs. Neuer teased, ‘with a pack of trophies.’

‘We are having so much fun today.’ Manuel exclaimed in delight, eyes brimming with joy, ‘Mom, look at my brows! You see the snowflakes there?’

Mrs. Neuer halted the work at hand and closely scrutinized their faces for a moment, ‘Looks like Santa. That’s probably what you’ll look like after 40 years.’

‘We bring you a gift.’ said Thomas cheerfully.

‘A tapestry. With a Goethe’s head embroidered on it.’ Manuel added, taking it out and unfolding the tapestry.

‘Oh my god, I’m so proud of you. You finally learn to embrace the glamour of Goethe.’

‘Yeah. But only after I saw a superhero-version Goethe…’ murmured Manuel, exchanging a quick smile with Thomas by stealth.

The dinner went with a swing as all of them were fully immersed in the heated chats and almost forgot eating. Twenty minutes passed, yet the plates were still full of food. But Manuel didn’t care, chatting and joking with Thomas was enough to satisfy his appetite.

‘So where have you been today?’ ventured Mr. Neuer with curiosity. It seemed that he was the only one who could remain composed in this fervent atmosphere. ‘Anywhere else except the museum?’

‘How do you know we’ve been to the museum?’ Manuel cocked his eyebrow, which already changed back to its normal brownish color.

‘The tapestry. Where else could you buy a tapestry with a Goethe’s head on it?’ 

_A retired sheriff is a sheriff nonetheless._ Manuel mumbled to himself, scooping a large spoonful of stew for himself and chomping on his share with his head down, avoiding his dad’s acute, penetrating eye.

‘Manuel spent a lot of effort on it.’ Thomas blurted out, ‘It took him two hours of selection to finally decide on this. He wanted to pick on the most proper gift for you.’

Manuel couldn’t express how grateful he was. He took Thomas’ hand underneath the table and gently rubbed it as an expression of gratitude. A faint yet tender smile crossed his lips stealthily, which however, didn’t go unnoticed by the couple sitting across the table.

‘We know that.’ said Mrs. Neuer kindly, blinking her eyes as a knowing smile crept onto her cheeks, ‘He’s a sweet boy. And you too, Thomas.’ She gave each of them a big, loving hug. ‘And one more word,’ Mrs. Neuer opened her mouth again as something suddenly crossed her mind, ‘your dad and I, we are not really against you watching a porn cause we know it’s basic physical needs for people of your age, hence you don’t have to worry about–’

‘For god’s sake, mom–’ cried Manuel, ‘we are not watching a porn. It’s the television! It decided to play a porn for its own sake, not us. We were watching _Night at the Museum_ and then we fell asleep and forgot to turn off the television.’

There was a moment of pregnant silence before Mrs. Neuer uttered a grumble, ‘It’s a bit of sad. I thought you finally matured.’

‘Mom, really?’ Manuel stuttered in disbelief in between Thomas’ hoarsely furious guffaws, ‘You really have to be so mean to me?’

Mr. and Mrs. Neuer eventually decided that the Goethe tapestry would be hung in their bedroom, on the wall right against the end of the bed. They explained that it would give them a feeling of refreshment every morning waking up with such a delightful spectacle. Apart from that, it could add a few poetic romance to the room, according to the couple’s claim, which Manuel found it quite difficult to relate to. He secretly told Thomas that he might never step inside their bedroom again, all for the sake of not recalling that superhero-version Goethe and that he couldn’t stop picturing the scene where Goethe was glaring at his sleeping parents in between optic blasts, which, according to what he said, looked like the frame from a horror film and even overshadowed a frightfully horrendous T-Rex with grim yellow eyes and razor-sharp talons.

‘Eerie. But it would make a good frame.’ Thomas joked while skimming through a magazine, ‘Hey, I have a great idea for the sequel of _Night at the Museum_! Imagine: some jinx bought a pack of artefacts from the museum’s gift shop. And they all came to life at night and started wreaking havoc in the house like blasting the television with optic beams and howling sonnets. Rated PG-13.’

‘PG-13? I think that sounds more like a cult film.’

They kept rambling on for about another hour until the streetlights outside went down one by one and the whole neighborhood sank into darkness. Manuel switched off the light, the room soon falling into a serene, relaxing atmosphere yet both of them still felt wide awake and as energetic as they were in the daylight hours. This was especially the case with Thomas, whose two lips moved vigorously at a rapid speed. Manuel thought he looked like a vampire, with those bright glittering eyes and two sharp canines.

_Vampire?_ It rang a bell, ‘ _We are conducting an exorcism to drive away those spiteful vampires.’ Yeah, here’s one on my bed. But I’m not gonna use garlics to deal with him._

‘What are you laughing at?’ Thomas’ voice intruded into his mind.

‘I’m thinking how much you look like a vampire.’

‘Me? A vampire? You gotta be kidding. I’ve seen the movies and comics, they are all porcelain white with silky skin. I’m definitely not one of them.’

_Porcelain._ It suddenly jogged Manuel’s memory, ‘Hang on, I almost forget.’ Manuel exclaimed, springing out of the bed in a split second and stealthily slipping out of the room. He came back moments later, with a pack held in his arms. He carefully set it on the bed and took an elaborately wrapped-up box out of it, handing it to Thomas, ‘Here, it’s yours.’

‘What is it?’ Thomas asked, fumbling with the straps and the wrapping paper.

‘Your gift.’

Thomas froze for a second, he tried to utter a reply, but the only thing that smoothly escaped out of his lips was an incoherent ‘Thanks’. He unwrapped the box in silence and proudly standing in there was the same porcelain horse which caught his sight at first glimpse back there in the gift shop. He squealed with joy and eagerly threw himself into Manuel’s arms.

‘You are suffocating me–’ moaned Manuel, ‘and keep quiet. They’ll hear us–’

‘So what? They’ll be more than happy to know you finally mature.’ Thomas didn’t bother hiding the mischievous toothy smile. He looked like a cute sly fox in darkness with those sparkling eyes and pointy canine teeth.

‘Seriously? Suddenly everyone starts doubting my maturity. That’s an act of cruelty. I feel hurt.’

‘Just enjoying some evil pleasure, love.’

Manuel smiled in resignation, struggling to wrench his arm free from Thomas’ tight cuddle in order to drag the pack to himself, where there was still a box left. ‘And this is for you as well.’

Thomas took the box and weighed it in his hand. He could hardly feel its weight. ‘What’s this?’ he asked, still cuddling up against Manuel.

‘Discover for yourself.’

He let out a shrill scream the moment it was opened, ‘It’s superhero Goethe!’ he shrieked, ‘But I thought you hated it.’

‘Well, but you like it so it really doesn’t matter how I regard this.’ Manuel took the flashlight, fiddling with it absentmindedly while croaking in whispers, ‘You can always take it with you. I figure, if you encounter people like Max ever again, in case you stumble into that sort of pranks–’ He winced. It vexed him to think of how that bastard hurt and taunted Thomas, ‘you know what I’m talking about – then at least you have light to see and won’t stumble. Though I wish you would never confront this kind of things ever again.’

His voice trailed off to nothing but soft panting. Thomas hauled himself up and looking at him from above. Slowly, their sights found each other. Manuel felt his cheeks scorching and his entire body becoming so tense and rigid that he started wondering if there might be hoarsely shrill creaking sounds once he dared to move. His limbs were numb with tension, and his head were swooned as those eyes eagerly gazed down at him. He felt not being himself and had absolutely no idea of how to act properly under such circumstances.

‘Um… I think maybe we should sleep,’ Manuel stammered anxiously, ‘cause you know, it’s pretty late. The streetlights are all out, and statistically, chances are there’s a logical connection between these two factors so–’

_For god’s sake, what am I talking about?_

He squeezed out a smile, ‘Okay, I’m talking nonsense, they may not exactly logically related to each other so just forget it…’

Thomas sat up and turned his back to him while he was still gibbering. _It didn’t look good,_ Manuel mentally alerted himself. _Okay, try thinking of something logical to say – wait, no, enough logics, try something else. Maybe I should kiss him? But it doesn’t seem to be the opportune moment. Goethe, you are the cleverest guy here, tell me what to do–_

His brainstorm was interrupted as Thomas suddenly pinched him on the arm, ‘Look,’ he whispered, staring at outside vigilantly, ‘is that your infamous gossip neighbor?’

Manuel crawled up to Thomas’ side and gazed out of the window through narrowed eyes, ‘Yes, it’s him. Strange. What’s he doing here?’

‘Maybe spying on you. Collecting information, basic skills for paparazzi.’ Thomas hazarded a guess. Manuel snorted and wrinkled his nose in dislike. ‘I have an idea, give me the flashlight.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘Just watch.’ He switched on the flashlight and darted the beam at Mr. Salihamidzic’s face, which startled him out of expectation. He was much infuriated after figuring out what happened and furiously swore at them before stomping away. The boys giggled helplessly when they saw their prank do the trick. The tensions haunted before just naturally melted away and gave way to the relaxing atmosphere brought by a brisk breeze of laughter.

‘It’s brilliant.’ Manuel croaked out some words in between helpless cackles while wiping off his tears. ‘Now he can reunite with his lovely bull dog. How dare he leave him in the house alone in such grim horrible night?’

‘Maybe he thinks taking a picture of us snogging each other is more important than his old fella.’ Thomas joked, ‘I might feel betrayed if I were him.’ He stretched a little bit and let out a huge yawn, ‘I’m tired, literally. Maybe it’s time to sleep. Yeah, time to sleep, it’s already 1:30.’

Manuel wasn’t paying full attention to what he said. He vacantly stared at the ceiling as a wave of melancholy suddenly washed over him. ‘It’s hard to believe this is already the last day in the time limit of our contract.’ He murmured gloomily, heaving a long heavy sigh.

‘How time flies, huh?’ prompted Thomas. He lay back and snuggled up to Manuel, fiddling with his fingers. ‘Still, I’m happy about the time we shared with each other during the past days. I’m glad to know you.’

There was a long, deafening silence swirling above their heads, casting an ominous shadow on their faces. ‘As a partner-in-crime, is that so?’

Thomas paused for a second, ‘No, as a friend.’

‘Only a friend?’ Manuel blurted in a hoarse whisper, he tried to keep himself as calm and steady as he could, yet the shaky voice betrayed him. The once melted tensions once again swept over this place.

Shrouded in darkness, it was hard to read Thomas’ expression, even his gleaming eyes seemed to fade into a dull color. He loosened his grip and turned over, leaving a faint silhouette to Manuel, ‘It’s pretty late. If you have something to say, leave it till morning.’

‘Okay, one more word.’ Manuel ventured boldly, ‘Have I ever told you that I think you are cute?’

He heard a chuckle, and in came a soft murmur, ‘I think you did.’


	9. Chapter 9

Day 7

The weather was at its worst today, the storming winds furiously blustered over the streets, hammering the window, trying to smash it with its strong, powerful fists. The thudding sounds startled Manuel. He sprung up and remained dazed for a while before his consciousness slowly flowed back to himself. He glanced at his side, but found nothing there. A gust of panic suddenly exploded in his chest, an ominous feeling spiraling in his mind as he feared that Thomas already packed up and left without telling him. But then he realized that their contract was not yet due and Thomas was probably just washing up. He let out a sigh of relief and slouched back, lying propped against the pillow. He glimpsed through the window, it was overcast. The thick grey cloud made it hard for the sunlight to pierce through. The sky was gloomy, and so was Manuel. His mind was in a chaos, overflown with stuff. He was just noted that there was a mounting pile of work awaited him to handle in the following days. His colleagues told him when they were back there in the museum yesterday, which meant, one more assignment needed to be crammed into his current schedule. Enough to give him headaches.

But it was on the margins when compared to certain task which tormented him for days. _Apologizing to mom and dad for hoaxing them. You know this day will finally come Manuel, you always know that. And this time, there was no retreat._

However, even this faded into insignificance in contrast to what haunted him most right now. It was the last day. The contract was about to be due, which meant, their lives would soon be back to normal ever after.

 _Normal._ God knew how much he hated this word. And now there was one more reason for him to fuel his grudge.

The door creaked open, Thomas trotting into the room in brisk paces and plopping down on the bed, a shrill moan of despair coming from under the mattress. ‘Your mom bought some croissants. It tastes hilarious.’ crowed Thomas cheerfully, ‘You wanna have one? I can get you some. Just nod if you want.’

A brief ‘No’ slipped the tip of Manuel’s tongue. Thomas cocked his eyebrow.

‘Are you sick?’

‘Of course not. I’m fine. Strong and healthy as I normally am.’

‘Is anything wrong?’ Thomas asked tentatively.

Another ‘No’ escaped his lips as a soft whisper, dissolving in the air into a heavy sigh.

Thomas stared at him in bewilderment for a moment and then decided to just lie down by his side. ‘Not a bad decision to have a lie-in after staying up the night before.’ He chuckled, ‘But seriously, you sleep too much Manu Bear. It’s already 11:00.’

‘Well, that’s what a lie-in is, sleeping much and getting up late. Otherwise why would I have it if I prefer a six hours’ sleep instead? ’

A faint smile flickered across Thomas’ face, ‘Is there anything bothering you? Don’t give me ‘no’ this time.’ He added with a warning look when he caught a glimpse of Manuel’s mouth preparing to pout. Manuel heaved a sigh, a hint of resignation wavering in his eyes.

‘Fine…’ he rubbed his eyes wearily, wincing at the blank ceiling, ‘It’s just… I didn’t expect that things would come out like this when I posted that thread back then. I’ve got emotional and cooked up this plan on the spur of the moment. And now everything is out of control.’

 _Including my feelings._ Manuel yelped mentally.

‘There’s a trench between the ideal and the reality, after all.’ mumbled Thomas, ‘Woa, I didn’t even know I had such profound insights.’

Manuel forced himself a chuckle of helplessness, ‘Can I ask you something?’ he asked in an undertone, and continued after Thomas nodded in affirmation, ‘Can you tell me why you are willing to offer me help in the first place?’

‘Just to have fun. You know what kind of person I am. I want to enjoy a bit of craic’ Thomas riposted without hesitation.

‘I want the truth.’

Thomas lapsed into silence. All of a sudden that glint of joy vanished in his eyes, replaced by a solemn look, which was so unlike him. ‘I know how hard things might be for a homosexual, you know, all those judgments and misunderstandings, even a long-time wrangle within the family.’ He paused, a sparkle of grief flashing across his eyes, ‘That day when I saw the post, I didn’t hesitate to offer help. I could read your anxiety from those words. You wouldn’t post that thread if the needs weren’t dire. So I figured I ought to help you. We are same kind of people. Both being homosexual, you and I, we are in the same boat. I feel it’s my duty to lend you a hand.’

There was a long, sorrowful sigh following his hearted confession. ‘It’s a noble cause.’ Manuel croaked, stealthily snatching a glance at him, ‘Though I haven’t realized before, I do owe you a thanks.’ He gazed at him with deep sincerity, ‘You are the only one responding to my post, I mean, except for those who are jeering in the comments, obviously. I’m truly grateful for that.’

Thomas let out a mild chuckle, ‘You are welcome.’

A gust of chill wind snuck into inside through the cracks in the windows, sweeping across their cold skin and giving them goose bumps. Thomas snuggled up to Manuel. It was all too obvious that they needed a bit of cuddles right now in the piercing coldness of the late November. He took Manuel’s hand, toying with his rough fingers and humming a light melody when Manuel’s hoarse voice suddenly cut in.

‘What if I’m that kind of guy like Max, what then?’ mumbled Manuel under his breath, staring at the vacant ceiling thoughtfully, ‘You are not afraid of being hoaxed, again?’

Thomas licked his lips reflectively, ‘Then I guess I have to accept my fate of being a jinx.’ He spoke briskly, ‘But lucky you are not him. With hindsight, I made the right decision. And don’t worry–’ he added when he noticed a hint of mirthless smile flickering across Manuel’s face, ‘Hard lesson learned. I have a club in my backpack this time. I would smash your head swiftly and ruthlessly if I found out you are up to no good.’

A string of pale laughter faintly echoed in the room, slowly drifting away in the breeze as another current of cool air slipped into the inside. ‘You are too good for a guy with guilty conscience.’ murmured Manuel, though more like muttering to himself.

The whole day he was trying to avoid Thomas’ gaze, whenever and wherever. Those enchanting eyes, which had completely bewitched him before, were torturing him right now. He felt himself crawling back to that shell, huddling himself and turning his back to everyone. When the other three were joking and shooting the breeze during the dinner like a happy family, he sat there rigidly, chomping absentmindedly on a Brezeln, head down and far away from the whirlpool of a heated chat, like a stranger.

‘–And a brood of rabbits?’ exclaimed Mrs. Neuer excitedly after she heard Thomas saying they were also raising rabbits on the farm, ‘How cute. Manuel kept clamouring for a pet rabbit when he was a child.’

‘I thought Manuel’s love was confined to Teddy Bear. Oh, and Nutella of course.’ Thomas giggled, ‘Maybe we can give you a baby rabbit. What’s your thought, Manu Bear?’

Still and lifeless, Manuel sat there with a detached look on his face, looking like a guardian sentinel over the small family. ‘Manuel?’ Thomas leaned over to him and whispered by his ear in an intimate manner, ‘Too concentrated on feasting on Nutella?’ He joked.

Hearing his voice, Manuel revived from vacancy and smiled a loving smile at him, though quickly averting his gaze away. ‘Your thought is my thought.’ He murmured in soft whispers.

‘You tune out just then, right?’ Thomas chuckled, mildly shaking his head with resignation.

‘Will you reproach me for this?’

‘At least wait until we are back in the safe house.’ Thomas stealthily blinked at him.

They started the second round of heated chat after dinner, settling themselves cozily in the sofa while happily twittering on, nibbling the cookies and munching on sugary snacks. It turned out, Mrs. Neuer had a sweet tooth. Thomas half suspected that Manuel’s keen interest on Nutella might be inherited from her. He couldn’t stifle a stealthy smile when that idea flashed across his mind.

Manuel, unlike the others, sat huddled at the end seat of sofa, snuggling up to a soft cushion, cocooned in his own mental pool. The heated voices of others were like nothing but disturbing buzzing sounds as if there were a cluster of annoying insects whirring in his head. He turned his gaze away, eyes roaming aimlessly around every other thing in the room, trying his utmost to distract himself. Though there were still snatches of their conversations drifting into his ear. He heard them gossiping about him – mom was sharing some of his childhood anecdotes and dad was more than glad that he could provide some additional details.

‘You went to the museum?’ He heard mom saying, ‘Did Manu take you to the paleontological exhibits?’

‘He did. That giant T-Rex skeleton, it sure was a stunning spectacle. I was totally speechless when I saw it.’ exclaimed Thomas feelingly.

Mrs. Neuer let out a string of giggles, ‘That kid always takes us there every time we go to the museum. Sometimes I wonder, maybe he regards that exhibition hall as something like a house garden, you know, having been there so many times. It’s like our own kitchen, with a pile of breathtaking displays though.’

 _That’s an overstatement, mama._ A restrained smile stealthily crept onto Manuel’s cheeks when he heard her words. _And I’m definitely not exaggerating._

With great curiosity, he looked over his shoulder and discreetly shot a sidelong glance at them, pricking up his ears, eager to know what they were talking about – mom was now again talking about her dream of having a family farm. _A hackneyed subject, that’s probably the thirteenth time this week that mom has bought it up._

‘–living on the farm, ploughing the land of our own, breeding chickens and dogs, it’s like… the dream life for me.’ She murmured, voice full of buoyancy.

‘You can come to our farm when you are free.’ Thomas ventured, ‘Maybe you can buy a plot of land there, to grow vegetables and flowers.’ A spark of exhilaration exploded in his voice, ‘Then we can be neighbors!’

‘Oh, that’s so sweet of you.’ said Mrs. Neuer affectionately, a smile radiating fondness spreading across her face, ‘You are a good boy, Thomas. Manu is lucky to have you by his side.’

Manuel felt his heart gripped. There was a conflicting feeling churning inside him, yet he felt painfully impotent to stop this fierce hurricane of emotions but to sweat it out until it died down itself.

‘We are more than happy to have you as part of the family.’ He heard her continuing, feeling stabbed in the heart.

‘I… ’ Thomas stammered. But he couldn’t finish his words as Manuel suddenly sprang to his feet in a fury and stomped back to the room with a face like thunder. ‘Manuel!’ Thomas called behind him, attempting to go after him when Mrs. Neuer unexpectedly grabbed him by the wrist and signaled him to stay still.

‘Let him be.’ She whispered calmly, ‘I have a word for you.’

Manuel was disheartened like a deflated balloon as he slouched against the door, listening to the heated chats and merry giggles outside the room, which seemed to come from another world. He didn’t know why he suddenly flew into passion there. He wasn’t sure what it was that blew the fuse for the whole day he found it unable to think straight, let alone sorting out a chaotic array of emotions. Manuel heaved a sigh, staring vacantly at the cluttered mess, pitying this room for soon to lose the newly-gained vitality and back to its dull state.

A gale of laughter caught his attention. Manuel cautiously opened the door a crack without letting out any creaking sound and peered through the chink. He saw them chattering away eagerly. He saw mom holding Thomas’ hand with a motherly fondness displaying on her face, whereas the latter was strangely quiet, a trace of faint blush creeping onto his cheeks. Dad laughed a crisp laugh and gently patted his shoulder. _They were already like a family,_ thought Manuel when he saw mom giving Thomas a warm hug.

But all those laughter was unreal. All those mirth and happiness was part of an elaborately-plotted hoax. They were all schemed beforehand, written in the contract, painted on the veil of a smiling face, sham and hollow.

He closed the door tight, shuffling to his bed and flopping down on it. He had no idea how long he’d lain on there until Thomas came back with the creaking of the door.

‘You are good at pretending to befriend them.’ Manuel breathed out a whisper, not even looking at him.

Thomas was stunned by surprise, he froze for a moment with a vacant look before slowly uttering a whisper, ‘I’m not pretending.’

Manuel shrugged, letting out a hollow laugh, voice full of spike, ‘Well then, it’s quite nice. I’m glad to see you get on well.’

‘If you have something in your mind, Manuel,’ murmured Thomas in a strangled voice, ‘say it out now.’

An ominous silence domed over them, ensuing a seemingly indifferent snort, ‘What do you expect from me?’

Through dimmed eyes he saw Thomas glaring at him with a disappointing look, restraining himself from an outburst of rage and running out of the room when he couldn’t hold his temper any more, leaving nothing but a vague silhouette. Pale and lifeless, Manuel lay still like a withered tree. Even his breath was weak.

‘Mrs. Neuer,’ He heard Thomas talking to mom, ‘I feel like going out for a walk. I’ll be back in an hour.’ And then the door was slammed shut. Manuel sighed gloomily, pulling himself to his feet and shambling to the window, outside where he saw a dim figure shuffling wobbly under the shimmering lamplight. Thomas was staggering down the street, shoulders hunched and arms tightly folded to against the wind. Manuel stood there stock-still, a feeling of coldness suddenly seizing him, infiltrating his every inch of skin and gripping his heart. He gazed at that slim figure tottering in limp paces, not tearing his eyes away even after the silhouette fading into distance, leaving nothing but a lanky shadow slowly receded away.

He was interrupted when he heard the door creaking open all of a sudden. Manuel quickly wiped his face clean before turning around and greeting mom with a bright smile, ‘Hey, mama,’ He exclaimed, voice a bit of trembling, ‘What brings you here?’

She chuckled, ‘Just come and check in on you. Everything alright?’

‘Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine.’ Manuel grumbled incoherently, ‘Why would you doubt that?’

Mrs. Neuer allowed herself a faint smile, sitting down on the bed, ‘Come here.’ She whispered softly, gently patting the mattress and signaling him to sit. Manuel obediently observed her instructions, lumbering to the bed and sitting next to her, intentionally keeping a small distance away from her, in fear of being seen through by her watchful eyes. Mrs. Neuer laughed, ‘Tell me what’s bothering you.’

Manuel lowered his head, ‘That’s my business. No need to bother you though.’ He mumbled, feeling her eagle eyes already burning a hole in his mind. 

‘You know, if there’s anything haunting you, you can always tell us.’ She fondly ruffled his hair as a sincere smile radiating warmth spreading across her wrinkled face, ‘We’ll always be there for you.’

Those soft words touched his innermost feelings. He gazed up at her, from those soft eyes he saw the incredible love and clemency of a mother, which he was unable to fully relate to at this moment though. Nonetheless they gave him infinite strength. Slowly but steadily, he opened his mouth, ‘I’m sorry mom, for the whole mess, for lying to you and dad.’ He lowered his gaze, hiding his features as he was suddenly overpowered by twinges of guilt, ‘I’m sorry, I truly am.’

A faint smile stealthily touched Mrs. Neuer’s lips, ‘What do you mean?’ she asked tentatively.

Manuel shook his head in anguish, ‘I… I lied to you. Thomas and I… we are not actually dating.’ He stammered, voice faltering, ‘We didn’t even know each other a week ago. This whole thing, that we are courting each other, is a hoax.’ His voice slowly faded to a whisper, ‘I posted a thread on the bbs, asking if there was someone willing to disguise as my boyfriend and help me get this through cause you know, I already told you I would bring my date. Thomas responded to my post, saying he was willing to help me. We reached agreement and you knew the rest part of this story…’

They sat in silence for some while, both immersing in their own thoughts, until Manuel carefully ventured, ‘Well? You aren’t mad at me?’

Mrs. Neuer made a face, ‘I am. A little bit maybe.’ Surprisingly, she let out a chuckle of relief, ‘But I know you did this for us. You made a mistake, nonetheless, it’s all for a good reason, so…’ she shrugged, ‘let’s just say I’m now half-mad, half-relieved.’

Manuel laughed, ‘Thomas said the same thing.’

‘Seems like he knows me well.’ Mrs. Neuer joked, glimpsing a dull crimson flashing across her son’s plump cheeks. ‘I presume we are done here.’ said her briskly while sluggishly stretched her arms, ‘But–’ she cast a meaningful look at him, ‘you still owe him an apology.’

‘I know that.’ Manuel grinned, giving her a hug and pecking her warm cheeks, ‘Love you, mom. You are the best, thanks for always being there for me.’

Thomas was back an hour later, hair ruffled and face drained of color due to chill wind. Manuel felt his heart aching when he saw him looking like this. He tried to say something to soothe him, but what came out was daft as a brush.

‘Um, are you cold?’ he stuttered, fidgeting with his shirt-tails with his head down to avoid Thomas’ glare.

‘My name is Thomas, not ‘cold’, thank you very much.’ snorted Thomas, ‘And if you intend to dub me as ‘cold’, I strongly suggest you reconsidering it cause we all know you are more qualified to be honored this title.’

Manuel almost choked, humming and hawing for a moment before a grumble managed to slog off the tip of his tongue, ‘I… I’m sorry for what I did before.’ He rubbed the back of the neck as a blush of bashfulness suffused his face, ‘My head was in chaos and… ’ he stammered, ‘I acted like a fool…’

‘I can see that.’ Thomas sniffed with an indifferent look.

Manuel sighed, looking defeated, ‘I… I don’t know what to say.’

‘Then just pipe down. You think you are singing a tuneful melody?’ he laughed hollowly and shook his head, eyes brimming with tears, ‘No. It’s a croaking noise of a crow and it’s searing my ear. So just shut up and let me have a moment of serenity.’ He cast a stern glance at him and started shuffling back and forth. The terribly quiet atmosphere didn’t bring him any peace however, it aroused the conflicted feelings inside him instead, causing a storm wave. He rubbed his face in exhaustion, feeling the tides of guilt ceaselessly washing over his conscience. He heaved a deep sigh, finally stopping pacing around and slowly whimpered out a hoarse whisper, ‘I’m sorry. I lost it.’ He croaked, burying his face in palms, ‘Just forget it.’

Trying not to startle him, Manuel slowly wobbled to Thomas, pulling him into a hug. For one split second, he feared that Thomas might push him away, but surprisingly he didn’t do it. He leaned to him like a cub clinging to its parents, with his head buried against Manuel’s broad shoulder.

‘I’m sorry. I should have believed in you, I–’ murmured Manuel gently by his ear. A soft whimper silenced him. He heard Thomas sniffing against his shoulder, ‘What? You think I’m plotting a hoax? Playing a prank like what you did before? I don’t mean to sound spikey but I have to say, I’m not that naïve.’ He slurred, unwilling to give up his withering childish irony even under this circumstances.

Manuel chuckled with resignation, ‘Okay, I admit, I’m the most naïve muttonhead in the world. Any more titles you want to honor me with?’

‘Shitty-joke-producer, easily-drunk-knucklehead, brain-of-the-lamest-prank, Nutella-destroyer–’ Thomas didn’t hesitate.

‘That’s too much.’ Manuel cut in, half-amused.

‘–softest-butt-owner.’

‘Okay, stop it there.’ said Manuel resolutely, stopping his brainstorm of stoutly patching together ridiculous titles. ‘No more butt joke. You know how much I hate it.’

Thomas loosened his grasp and parted himself from Manuel’s hug, slowly shambling to the bed, ‘I remembered you once said, it didn’t matter how you regarded it as long as I fancied it.’ He darted a challenging look at the big guy remaining motionless where he was, ‘So it’s another lie then?’

‘That’s… different.’ Manuel stuttered a grumble, choked with his own words. In the end he decided that he might as well just raise the white flag, ‘Okay, I surrender. You win. Can we call a truce?’ 

Thomas snorted a laugh, with a pronounced air of pride on his face. ‘Then it’s a truce. But remember, it’s me who wins this time.’

‘Well, I’ll remember to carve it down.’

It was clear that Thomas was now in a better humor as he was cozily sitting there fiddling with his Goethe flashlight in a relaxing manner while humming a light melody. Yet Manuel wasn’t so certain about it and couldn’t stop squinting glances at him, until his bold prying finally caught Thomas’ attention. ‘What?’ he asked, his bright eyes brimming with childish curiosity.

Manuel bit his lower lip thoughtfully before venturing, ‘Are you still mad at me?’

‘Should I sulk at a knucklehead, then I myself might be the biggest knucklehead in the world.’ He snorted, a note of sarcasm in his voice, ‘But you and I both know that I’m definitely not so the answer it pretty clear.’

Manuel let that bitter smile linger on his face longer than it was supposed to, and gingerly asked, ‘Is that the secret of how you manage to keep cool when dealing with all those lousy things?’

‘Wait, you call yourself lousy? That’s too harsh. But I respect it.’

Manuel gently slapped his shoulder, ‘One more word and you’ll be disgraced as the biggest knucklehead in the world. And don’t blame me for not warning you.’

Thomas rolled his eyes with a disgruntled look, ‘Fine. You are right. Don’t sulk at the knucklehead – that’s my motto, at least in most cases. Satisfied?’ sniffed Thomas, toying with the flashlight, flipping the switch on and off. A flare vigorously bounced back and forth on the ceiling like a naughty puppy. ‘Manuhead,’ Thomas blurted out as something suddenly called to his mind when he was busy playing with that flashlight, ‘I have something to tell you, about your gossip neighbor, that Mr. Sali–’

‘–Hamizic.’ prompted Manuel.

‘Yeah, whatever.’ Thomas waved his hand absentmindedly, ‘I know what he was up to out there last night. He was using the free wifi. The family living across the street forgot to set a password for their wifi, leaving it accessible to everyone. Mr. Sali-whatever found about it one day and thereby he decided that he should come here whenever he needed to use the internet, you know, just to save money. He believed installing a wifi would cost big bucks.’ He shrugged disapprovingly, ‘He sure is a Scrooge.’

‘Okay…’ said Manuel slowly, cocking his eyebrow in confusion, ‘But how do you know that?’

‘I ran into him today and he told me all this.’ A proud smile spread across Thomas’ face, ‘I can get people talk, pretty easy. You are an exception though.’ He pouted crossly, shooting a stern sideways stare at Manuel, ‘Truly a hard nut to crack.’

Manuel allowed himself a thin smile, ‘But you sure you haven’t heard a crack?’ he boldly ventured, an implicit trace of expectation sparkling in his blue eyes ‘Not even a slight crackle?’

Thomas thought for a moment, ‘You mean like this?’ He then gently flicked Manuel’s plump cheek, finding it hard to stifle a chuckle when he saw him wincing and puffing out his adorable chubby cheeks like a baby. ‘Truth to be told, I have looked forward to doing this since the first day we met.’ crowed Thomas, cupping his face and affectionately rubbing it, ‘It’s even better than your butt. Yeah, definitely worth it. It redeems all my sufferings these days.’

‘A little gratitude on behalf of my cheeks.’ Manuel rolled his eyes, voice a bit of muffled as it beat him to make a clear sound when Thomas was enthusiastically caressing his face. He gazed at Thomas with a pensive look, his brooding blue eyes fixed intently at him in suffocating silence, looking at those features, those sparkling eyes, that toothy grin and those messy curl strands, thinking of the moment when he took a fancy to him – the sunlight, and the kiss.

Thomas stopped short when he realized that Manuel was eagerly staring at him, ‘What?’ he chuckled nervously, ‘Do I get a mosquito on my face?’

Tempted, he leaned closer to him and cupped his chin gingerly with a flame of affection blazing intensely in his eyes. He remained motionless for a while, hesitant about what to do next until Thomas’ voice suddenly rang and interrupted this pantomime. ‘You wanna kiss me?’ he hazarded daringly, looking narrowly at Manuel for any sign of his next move.

Manuel didn’t hesitate to give his answer this time, ‘I do.’ said him crisply, not tearing his gaze away from Thomas’ face.

‘Then why don’t you do it?’

It baffled Manuel why he stuck here, still blowing hot and cold like a swing. That day everything just came so natural, strangely without any emotional concern. Although it was an act of boldness and recklessness with hindsight. However, right now things were different. That burden which had dogged him all these days was unloaded, so what it was that still hindered him from making his next move?

Thomas captured a spark of uncertainty faintly flicked across Manuel’s eyes, having an ominous inkling that what worried him before might be true, ‘Because you still have doubts, is that so? You thought I was playing tricks on you. You still don’t believe me.’

‘No.’ Manuel rejected immediately, ‘That’s ridiculous. None of this is your fault. It’s just–’ He paused, feeling all those words stuck in his throat, ‘–I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Everything I do today is irrational and I can’t find a logical explanation for all this.’

‘Well, being emotional means giving up part of your rational sense. Your sanity probably locks itself up in a cabin, huddled up in the corner wallowing in self-pity right when we are talking here cause it just got heavily thrashed by your emotions. So that’s why you can’t find it the whole day.’

Manuel was stunned speechless for a while, he could only stutter out an unimpressive ‘Impressive’ after regaining the power of speech. This reminded him of how whimsical Thomas was, and how relaxing but at the same time exhausting it was to chatter away with him, or at least used to be. Now it was full of uncertainty and irresolution. He wavered over the use of words and his voice was no longer steady, but quavering like a leaf in hysterical gusts of winds.

_So that was what was like to have someone in mind, someone you treasured._

‘I admit it,’ Manuel blurted, swallowing hard, earning himself a curious look from Thomas, ‘I do have feelings for you, that’s for sure. But that doesn’t change anything. You are leaving and I’ll soon be back to the routine.’ He murmured, eyes roving aimlessly around the room as a shadow of melancholy swept across his face. Manuel heaved a heavy sigh, ‘Sorry for being emotional.’

‘Too many sorry today.’ moaned Thomas, faking covering his ear, ‘I beg for something else.’

‘Okay… what do you want?’ asked Manuel innocently, tilting his head.

Thomas meditated narrowly for a moment and advisedly uttered a reply, ‘I fancy an affirmation.’

‘Affirmation? Like what?’

Thomas rolled his eyes, pouting a murmur, ‘Like this.’

He then leaned up to him without hesitation and kissed him hard on the soft lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the writing spirits:
> 
> feeding myself with the awkward flirting of my boys ×
> 
> being sarcastic as ever with Brazzo √


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the final chapter! 
> 
> So it has reached 30k at last, which I haven't thought about it at first (yeah writing a fiction in a language which is not your native tongue is not easy no kidding) Anyway-- 
> 
> Thanks for your support, thanks @CincyDrawing and @Bastian_Arthemiz for your cordial comments :D
> 
> Hope you have fun reading this~ (～￣▽￣)～

Manuel could barely fall asleep the whole night as he felt himself inflamed with a surge of fervent intensity, his heart feverishly pounding against the chest and his blood rampaging inside the veins like herds of stampeding cattle. He pondered on Thomas’ meaningful words as he was subconsciously touching and caressing his own lips now and then, as if trying to dig out their meanings by chewing them over. Deeply puzzled and haunted, he turned around and found Thomas facing him, sleeping on his side. He was in a peaceful slumber, breathing shallowly and purring mildly like a kitten. Manuel helped tuck him in when he noticed that his shoulder was left uncovered.

Quietly gazing at him, Manuel found comfort and serenity in this tranquil sight, feeling himself soothed by Thomas’ mild breath. He was relieved that he finally found somewhere he could relax in repose.

 _But daybreak would find it all gone._ Manuel breathed out an agonizing sigh, tearing his gaze away from Thomas and turning his attention to the vacant ceiling. He liberated himself from the ceaseless torment of those meaningless thoughts and decided that he should at least use some sleep when the first ray of sunlight was looming up in the distance, lest he accidentally fell into a doze while driving. He didn’t wish to be involved into a traffic accident on top of all the mess which he had dragged himself into in the past week.

He woke up soon after the crack of dawn, not gaining much sleep but enough to blow away the cobwebs. The first thing Manuel did after awakening from sleep was to check in on Thomas, who was still in sound oblivion, bathing in gleams of sunlight, blessed with a soft kiss from Helios. His skin was golden and his hair was elaborately gilded, and what was reflected on him spilled light to Manuel, illuminating his view. For a split second he had an illusion that he was actually accompanied by an angel.

A string of laughter suddenly rang outside as a horde of kids ran past the window, howling in exhilaration like beasts. Thomas was startled by this outburst, swiftly jerking his shoulders while reluctantly opening his eyelids a crack. ‘Time to get up?’ He slurred in a dreamy voice.

‘Um, no, it’s only seven.’

‘Okay, call me at nine.’ He then crept back to the warm covers and snuggled up to Manuel, nuzzling against his chest as Manuel spontaneously put an arm around his shoulder and held him closer to himself. He looked at the half-sleeping boy and sniffed out a whisper as an idea flashed across his mind, ‘Thomas, can you tell me which radio show you are commentating now?’

‘The Horse Breeders’ Got Talent.’ Thomas grumbled, ‘I commentate on breeding horses.’ Manuel almost took it for real had it not been for the fact that he broke into a chuckle after finishing his words. ‘What?’ Thomas shot a mischievous look at him from under his eyelashes, ‘Finally learn to embrace the glamour of Bavarian accent and want to pick up some classic Bavarian slangs yourself?’

‘If you say so.’ snorted Manuel, ‘Also, not too bad if I can hear a familiar voice on my evil day.’

Thomas allowed himself a bitter smile, ‘You are a dork.’ He shook his head disapprovingly, stifling the urge to heave a sigh.

The sun was high in the heaven by the time they got up. It was Friday. The street was swarmed with people rushing to work and school as well, truly a view of vigor. Inside the house there was also a hectic flurry of stuff as Mr. and Mrs. Neuer was fussing over the breakfast and Thomas was busy packing up whereas Manuel, who was supposed to be the least frantic among them, added fuel to the fire by attempting to help with the preparation of food, consequently causing a minor accident in the kitchen and thus being forcibly banished by his parents from their workplace. Without the presence of Manuel, the breakfast was soon ready and served. They enjoyed a meal of four one last time, chatting and laughing as ever.

Thomas packed up the remaining belongings and tidied the bedding after breakfast. The gifts which Manuel had given to him – the porcelain horse and the flashlight – were all safely packed in the backpack. He glanced around the room one last time before humping up his bags and leaving, shuffling to the door where the other three were waiting.

‘I’ll take the bags to the car.’ said Manuel promptly.

They said goodbyes on the doorstep, Mr. Neuer waving his hand to bid farewell and Mrs. Neuer pecking Thomas on both cheeks with a motherly fondness, whispering some soft murmurs by his ear which Manuel could only grasp some snatches. He then hopped in the car, quickly switching on the ignition and motioning to Thomas to get in. Thomas walked down the stairs obediently after seeing his gesture, but all of a sudden, he turned around unexpectedly and trotted back on the doorstep, throwing himself into Mrs. Neuer’s arms for a feverish hug, like a child who were unwilling to part from his mother. Manuel saw him wiping his face with a loud whimper when he finally turned around this time, sniffing while slowly shambling this way in unsteady paces.

On the way to the train station, there was a suffocating silence drifting in the car as neither of them was in the mood of shooting the breeze. Thomas sank back in his seat, eyes gazing out of the window reflectively as his head leaned against it, the flowing scenery reflected on the glass casting a gloomy shadow upon his face. Every now and then Manuel would carefully snatch some glances at him, attempting to say something soothing, however all of them failed in his throat.

When they halted at the traffic lights at a crossing from where they could already make out the vague outline of the bell tower at the train station, Manuel at last made up his mind to bite the bullet and broke the agonizing silence, gingerly croaking, ‘You know–’ Thomas jerked his head to him, ‘–They like you, really. I can see that.’ 

Thomas licked his lips thoughtfully as his gaze slowly fell down, as if mentally debating over something. ‘There’s a thing I forgot to tell you,’ he finally opened his mouth, whispering in a not very assuring voice, ‘your mom told me last night. They were fully aware that we were not actually dating. They knew about this long ago. They had some minor doubts on the first night and your mom said their suspicion was actually confirmed the next day, that kiss was the culprit. I’m sorry about that, anyway,’ He cleared his throat and shot a meaningful look at Manuel, ‘they decided to remain silent cause they knew you did this for them. So, if you still have doubts making an apology, there’s no need to be hesitant–’

‘I already told them the truth,’ Manuel murmured hoarsely, ‘last night when you were out, um, for a walk.’ He swallowed, a blush stealthily creeping onto his cheeks.

It took Thomas a while to fully digest this information, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ responded Thomas, ‘I’m happy for you.’ He opened his mouth again a few moments later, eyes gazing absentmindedly in the distance, ‘I have to admit, part of the reason why I agree on taking part in this whole thing is that I’m curious about your parents and I want to know what they are like. What you wrote in that post gave me an impression that they were that kind of parents, you know, supportive and open-minded. I’m eager to know what it is like to live in a family like this.’ His voice trailed off.

‘I understand that.’

‘Remember you once said it was a noble cause?’ prompted Thomas, making a face, ‘Well, now you can see the selfishness in this. Not so noble, huh?’ said Thomas in a self-mocking manner, ‘But I assume it doesn’t matter now.’

It seemed politic not to be hasty to respond, nonetheless, Manuel forced himself to stutter a reply, ‘Um, I’m thinking, since they both have retired, they are now as free as air, I mean, they can come to your farm at any time.’ He faked a relaxed gesture while nervously tapping the steering wheel, stealing a glance at Thomas, ‘So, just call them if you miss them, they’ll be more than glad to hear from you.’

Thomas swallowed several times before managing to choke out his words, ‘What about you?’ questioned him, ‘You keep talking about them, what about yourself?’

Manuel fell silent. His question just hit him square in the heart, touching the softest, most sentimental innermost part of his feelings. Manuel could see his knuckles turn pale while he was tightly holding the wheel, applying too much strength on it, as if trying to crumple it with his bare hands. He hesitated for quite a long time before giving his answer.

‘The bunnies are indeed very tempting to me so…’ said him evasively at last. But he was soon barged in on by a loud sniff, ‘I…’ peeped Manuel, stealing a glance at him, trying to make for the embarrassing situation.

‘No more saying.’ returned Thomas in a distant, steely tone.

So Manuel kept his mouth shut with great obedience.

They arrived at the train station forty minutes ahead of schedule. Thomas insisted carrying the bags all himself and striking out towards the platform through tides of people hurrying in the opposite direction, not sparing a look at Manuel, who were trailing behind him.

The hustle and bustle was not seen here on the platform, only several passengers gathering in small groups chatting and gossiping, cozily lounging around to kill time. Manuel and Thomas were like outcasts among them, both stiffly seated on the bench and vacantly staring in the distance in awkward silence, far away from the heated chats, alien to the relaxed atmosphere. Nevertheless, every now and then Manuel would discreetly flash a sideways glance at the boy sitting beside him. Thomas sat there with a deadpan face, his arms folded and his mouth pouted in a childish manner. It seemed that he was utterly indifferent and therefore totally oblivious to the things around himself, though it proved to be false when their sights accidentally met. They both gasped instinctively, simultaneously jerking their heads away as if they had been electrocuted.

Manuel darted a quick glance at the wall clock lonely ticking straight ahead – in no more than ten minutes, the train would arrive and Thomas was due to leave. Manuel felt his heart sinking, he swallowed hard, having a delusion that the ruthless ticking sound was in fact the Grim Reaper, sneering at him and telling him he was already at the death’s door. Gasping to himself, Manuel blurted out, ‘Thomas, um, I know you are listening so I’m just going to say it…’ He chattered away in a strangely high-pitched voice, his heart pounding against the chest frantically, ‘I know I’m a dork. I’m fully aware of that, so… sorry for what I’ve said before and what I’m about to say cause they in all likelihood might offend you, just in case.’

He paused, carefully shooting a fleeting glimpse at Thomas before continuing, ‘The contract, and this whole plan, they were utterly hare-brained, so, um, sorry for dragging you into it…’ babbled Manuel, not knowing why on earth he had so much to say, considering that in normal cases Thomas was the one who kept bubbling over like a radio all the time. He swallowed several times, feeling his tongue tingling and his throat dry as a wasteland, ‘But I don’t regret doing this. With hindsight, I’m thankful that I’ve posted that thread, otherwise we would’ve still been strangers. And I would’ve never got to know a man of nobility and sincerity, a man who is warm-hearted, always willing to help and brings joy to everyone–’

He was interrupted by a shrill siren hooting untimely in the distance, succeeded by a commotion as clusters of passengers started trotting and yelling on the platform.

‘The train is coming.’ said Thomas calmly, standing up and flicking away the dusts on the trousers. Manuel gripped his wrist to stop him when he intended to bend down to lift up his backpack, forcing him to turn around and face him.

‘Wait,’ He hastened to say, looking him straight in the eye, ‘I know it may sound hasty but I…I want you to stay.

‘With me.’ He then added.

A clutch of passengers passed by, followed by a ticket collector urging people to board as soon as possible. Thomas didn’t move, nor did he utter a word. Consequently, Manuel decided to just continue, ‘Now I can barely tear my eyes away from you. It was… unthinkable a week ago but it just happened. It’s almost improbable to find a logical reason behind this but yeah,’ He paused, fidgeting with his sweaty fingers as he gazed into Thomas’s eyes with great nervousness, ‘I think I’m in love with you. And it’s not a hoax this time, really, I’m not lying. I say it from my heart. I love you.’

Manuel took in a deep gasp of relief after confessing his feelings, ‘It’s chaotic, I get it. I should have at least made a draft.’ He swallowed, rubbing his head bashfully as he went crimson, ‘So, um, would you date me? Without that contract of course?’ ventured him tentatively, discreetly peering at Thomas from under the eyelashes.

It was hard to tell what Thomas was contemplating, he remaining still like a tree, unbothered. Seconds but what felt like centuries later, he finally gave his reaction by bringing out his wallet and producing three one-hundred-euro notes, stuffing them into Manuel’s fist.

‘What’s this?’ asked Manuel in bewilderment, lifting his eyebrows.

‘Your refund.’

‘For what?’

Thomas pouted, ‘For failing to fulfill our contract.’ said him crisply, ‘It just occurred to me that I ought to give them back to you cause you know, we failed that mission in the first place, since your parents already knew about our little secret long ago. And–’ He gazed up at Manuel daringly in a childishly proud air, chin up and the chest puffed out, ‘–considering that contract is probably the most formidable obstacle between us, I think it’s better to retract it. Plus I might have a guilty conscience keeping the money which I earned from my boyfriend whom I was supposed to help orchestrate a hoax, not accidentally fall in love with him. I’ll not risk setting some emotional barricade around my conscience, unlike a certain dork.’

They both fell into a brief, pregnant silence before Manuel cautiously peeped, ‘You agree?’

‘Yes.’

That caged beast was let go with a roar. For Manuel, it was the first time ever that he had had a glimpse of being impulsive, letting his emotions take over completely, being true to himself. He pulled Thomas into a hug and planted a fervent kiss on his soft lips, not sparing a thought for the outside. They quietly shared this precious moment of emotions for as long as they could, necking each other intensely as Manuel’s hand was snaking upwards along the side of Thomas’ waist until it finally reached the back of his neck, feeling its warmth. They felt their strands of hair softly brushing against each other’s skin and their lips caressing in tenderness, listening to a melody of rejoicing drumming in the ears whilst their hearts excitedly hammering against the chest in unison, unwilling to part until the siren squealed again. Only then did Manuel realize that the ticket collector was peeping at them through narrowed eyes with a malevolent sneering smile on the face. 

‘Just doing the kissing challenge, mate!’ Thomas yelled cordially at him, his face aglow with happiness, totally unconcerned about the malicious glances from beside. Then he turned his gaze back at Manuel with a boyish grin while still loosely clung to him, eyes gleaming with glitters of childish mischief, ‘See? That’s my way of dealing with lousy pricks. Long way to go, Manu Bear, you’ve got a lot to learn.’ 

Manuel chuckled, ‘Okay, now you are playing the mentor. But yeah, I guess I do need your whimsical but pungent insights sometimes.’ He looked into the distance where the train slowly receded away into the mist, with only the siren barely audible. ‘So that ticket is wasted,’ he muttered under his breath, ‘sorry for that.’

‘So what? I’ve got a kiss.’

‘You are gonna stay for the weekend?’

‘Or are you expecting me to trek back?’ answered Thomas immediately with a laugh, ‘Okay, just kidding. The first thing I’m gonna do after getting back is to tell the old man that I’ve found a man who probably loves me more than he does.’

‘You are gonna get me killed.’ giggled Manuel, faking a tone of accusation and sighing with resignation. Nonetheless, he gave him a tender peck on the lips before saying, ‘Come, we are going back. Mom and dad will be so happy to see you.’

‘Not me. Us, together.’ Thomas corrected him.

So Thomas stayed for another weekend. They enjoyed a family meal of four once again, chatting and laughing blissfully as ever, in a familiar-but-in-the-same-time-maybe-not-so-familiar euphoric atmosphere where all of them could find their respective feelings of joy and satisfaction. And it all thanks to Manuel’s reckless but timely idea and that hare-brained contract.


End file.
